Landfill Decision Lacks Common Sense

* In regard to the Lopez Canyon Landfill, politics won a major battle over common sense during the City Council vote Dec. 13, in which the council decided to “uphold a promise” and close Lopez Canyon in July 1996 (“Operations Extended for 5 Months at Lopez Dump,” Dec. 14).

I am employed at Lopez Canyon as a sanitary engineering assistant. However, I am not writing in fear of losing my job because of this decision. I am writing as a former Los Angeles city resident, and I am writing as someone with intimate knowledge about the quality of Lopez Canyon.

By closing Lopez Canyon in July, the city must come up with about $8 million per year to send refuse somewhere else. Relying on an extra capacity fee leaves the city in a precarious position. A waste generator may tend to do one of several things when faced with a fee for using extra refuse bins: First, a neighbor may have a half-full bin every week that can make up the difference in someone’s own bin. Second, recycling and waste reduction may be improved at the waste generation source.

This is of course favorable to the city’s waste reduction goals, but if someone reduces to the point where an extra waste bin is not needed, the city will not receive those fees. Third, this fee encourages dumping in backyards and alleys. Finally, although a $5 monthly fee per additional container was estimated to make up for the $8 million, the City Council agreed to charge a monthly fee of only $1 per extra container. It is unclear where the additional funds will come from.

A lot of arguments have been made about the city’s promise to close Lopez in 1996. However, given that the Bureau of Sanitation is facing a deficit of $100 million to $150 million, perhaps it would have been appropriate for someone to say that a mistake had been made in promising closure of Lopez back in 1991, without having all disposal alternatives studied. This is a fault that should be shared between the Bureau of Sanitation and council members.

Several things were accomplished by the Dec. 13 council vote: City Councilman and Lopez Canyon opponent Richard Alarcon has secured a healthy campaign agenda, Lopez will close with approximately four years of refuse capacity remaining on top of a state-of-the-art liner system, and every person living within these city limits is now likely to pay an extra fee for refuse disposal in the future.

STEVEN SAVAGE

Whittier