Supervisors OK City Trash for Landfill

Removing one of the final obstacles to opening Sunshine Canyon Landfill above Granada Hills, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan Thursday that will allow the city of Los Angeles to dump trash at the landfill once it opens this summer.

The 4-1 decision, with Supervisor Mike Antonovich dissenting, is the result of a legal settlement reached in December between the city and the dump’s operator, Browning Ferris Industries, after more than a decade of squabbling among various factions.

In one consequence of the squabbling, the county in 1991 banned BFI from accepting the city’s trash at Sunshine Canyon once the dump opened. The city responded by forbidding garbage trucks to travel on the access road to the landfill, which passes through the city’s jurisdiction.

But Thursday’s board vote--combined with last year’s legal agreement between the city and BFI--all but clears the way for the opening of the county portion of the dump as early as July 1, barring rainstorms or a lawsuit, a BFI spokesman said.

“This finally puts to bed the major difference between the county and city,” said Arnie S. Berghoff, BFI’s director of government and community affairs for Southern California.

The 215-acre dump straddles city limits about a half-mile southwest of the junction of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

The vote represented a significant defeat for Antonovich, who has long been a vociferous opponent of the dump, situated in his district.

Antonovich had attempted to delay the vote until copies of the legal agreement between the city and BFI were released to the supervisors.

But a lawyer for the city told the board that the pact had nothing to do with whether the county should allow the city to deposit trash at the landfill.

“That settlement is confidential,” Deputy City Atty. Keith Pritsker said. “I don’t believe it has any relevance to the decision today.”

Responded Antonovich: “Why the rush to judgment? What’s the city hiding?”

After the vote, Antonovich fumed. “It’s an abrogation of responsibility,” he said, saying if the documents are not relevant to the board’s vote “then what’s the harm in letting us see it?”

But Supervisor Gloria Molina said the landfill had been a source of contention long enough.

“This issue has gone as far as it can go,” she said. “The point is that we’re just trying to create more delays in something that is inevitable.”

The North Valley Coalition, representing homeowners in the area, said it would investigate its legal options, and would probably sue the county and possibly the city.

“It’s sort of typical,” said Mary Edwards, the group’s president. “If you look at the [campaign] contributions to all the supervisors [from BFI], you sort of expect it.”

Berghoff said BFI will eventually increase the size of Sunshine Canyon by reopening the portion of the dump that is within city limits. That section had been closed in 1991.

An environmental impact report could be completed and delivered to the City Council within 18 months, he said.

Also Thursday, BFI and the city released a summary, but not the details of their agreement, which included the following:

* BFI will dismiss its $400-million lawsuit against the city.

* BFI may use the access road to the dump.

* No trash from outside the county will be accepted at Sunshine Canyon for 7 1/2 years.

* BFI will accept city waste at competitive prices.

After realizing he would be outvoted, Antonovich pushed for an agreement guaranteeing that no trash from outside the county would ever be dumped in the landfill. But Antonovich lost that battle too. Instead, the board agreed to review whether the 7 1/2-year ban should stay in place before 2001.