Browning-Ferris to Buy Elsmere Landfill : Waste: Purchase of dump from BKK Corp. may delay site’s development while boosting pressure to reopen Sunshine Canyon.

In a deal between two waste-disposal giants, Browning-Ferris Industries said Wednesday it will purchase the site of the proposed Elsmere Canyon landfill in the Santa Clarita Valley from BKK Corp.

Although the impact on the local trash wars was uncertain, it appears the deal may delay development of the controversial Elsmere dump east of Santa Clarita, while increasing pressure to reopen BFI’s mothballed Sunshine Canyon Landfill north of Granada Hills.

Executives of the companies said the sale is contingent on reopening Sunshine Canyon and closing BKK’s landfill in West Covina.

The price was not disclosed, and will be based in part on future revenues from BFI operations in the Los Angeles area. But Ron Gastelum, chief operating officer for Torrance-based BKK, hinted at the price, saying BKK will get enough to cover the costs of closing its West Covina dump--an expense estimated at up to $60 million.

BFI was forced to close the Sunshine Canyon dump in 1991 when its operating permit expired. Since then, the firm has received repeated approvals from Los Angeles County for renewed dumping, only to be stymied through legal maneuvers by nearby homeowners and the city of Los Angeles.

The city most recently used its zoning authority to bar trash trucks from using an access road that is owned by BFI but runs through city territory to the dump, which straddles the city-county line. County supervisors are now considering whether to accept title to the private road, on the theory that the city could not impose zoning regulations on the county government.

Under the deal with BFI, Gastelum said BKK will join its rival in lobbying to reopen Sunshine Canyon.

BFI was vague on whether it would proceed with the 190-million-ton landfill BKK proposed to create in Elsmere Canyon, which has been bitterly opposed by the city of Santa Clarita.

In a prepared statement announcing the purchase, BFI said it intends to “review . . . the timetable for the permitting and development of the Elsmere Canyon landfill,” about three miles northeast of Sunshine Canyon on the fringe of the Angeles National Forest.

Elsmere opponents “can read whatever they want into” BFI’s statement, Gastelum said.

“I would say it is a breather, perhaps, for them. And time, more than anything else, may work in their favor. But on the other hand, time may not,” Gastelum said, adding that a revived economy could increase demand for dump capacity.

Caught off guard by the announcement, public officials and anti-dump activists were scrambling to determine how the sale would affect the two landfill projects.

“If they do decide to strengthen the fight [to develop Elsmere], they will have one tremendous battle from the city of Santa Clarita,” vowed the city’s mayor, Jo Anne Darcy.

“This one really took me by surprise,” said Rosemary Woodlock, attorney for the North Valley Coalition, which opposes reopening Sunshine Canyon.

“It does not make any sense at all to have two major landfills . . . right across the freeway from each other,” said Woodlock, adding that she was not sure the deal will delay either project.

“It will be interesting to see what we have to deal with,” she said.

Jeff Kolin, deputy city manager of Santa Clarita, said BKK apparently was “feeling the strain from the potential closure of their West Covina landfill and the extended process to get” permits from government agencies for Elsmere.

As part of the deal with BFI, BKK agreed to shut down its West Covina landfill. The company faces a pending lawsuit from the city of West Covina seeking closure of the dump.

Michael Miller, director of environmental services for West Covina, estimated that site closure, long-term maintenance and cleanup will cost $60 million.

In the lawsuit, West Covina said BKK had reneged on an agreement to close the dump by November of this year. BKK, by contrast, has contended it has the right to operate the dump until 2006. Gastelum said the decision to close the West Covina dump under the BFI agreement was motivated by a wish to end litigation with the city.

He estimated it would cost $30 million to adequately shut down the West Covina dump.

Despite the breathing room offered by the deal, Santa Clarita Valley dump opponents seemed unconvinced that much had been accomplished by the deal.

Marsha McLean, president of the Santa Clarita Valley Canyons Preservation Committee, said the community needs to look for alternatives, not more urban landfills.

“We don’t want Elsmere hanging over our heads for 20 years,” she said. “We would just hope that they decide. . . . Elsmere is not a good site for a landfill.”

The prospect of enlarging the Sunshine Canyon dump was not comforting, even though a dump exists there already.

“Landfills do not belong in urban areas--that goes for Sunshine, Puente Hills, all of them,” she said.

Levin is a Times staff writer and Kirka is a special correspondent.