State Panel to Endorse Lopez Dump Extension

A state panel that oversees landfill permits on Friday upheld the city of Los Angeles’ decision to continue using the controversial Lopez Canyon Landfill through July 1, despite threats of a lawsuit from angry residents who accuse the city of violating environmental laws and breaking its promise to close the dump.

The Permitting and Enforcement Committee of the state Integrated Waste Management Board, which usually meets in Sacramento, held the special meeting in Burbank at the request of state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D--Sylmar), so that residents from Lake View Terrace and other communities adjacent to the dump could attend.

The committee voted 4 to 0 to recommend that the waste management board, which meets Jan. 24, extend the city’s solid waste facilities permit allowing trash dumping at Lopez Canyon through July 1.

The move follows the Los Angeles City Council’s approval in December of a conditional use permit extending by five months the life of the dump, which was previously scheduled to close Feb. 4. Lopez Canyon, in Lake View terrace, is the last city-owned dump still in operation.

The council also deemed the landfill “categorically exempt” from the strict California Environmental Quality Act, angering residents seeking the dump’s closure.

“The issue is, we have a landfill that is being allowed to operate without adhering to CEQA, despite repeated notices of violations,” said Sandy Hubbard, a past president of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., a homeowners’ group that has been fighting the dump for years.

“That is a dangerous precedent to set.”

Hubbard said her group, along with two other homeowners’ associations in the area, will file a lawsuit in the coming weeks alleging rampant violations of environmental laws at the dump, and demanding its closure.

Katz, who represents many of the residents fighting the dump, was not present, but a representative from his office presented the committee with a list of about 50 environmental violations at the landfill dating back to 1993, including dangerous gas emissions and the discharge of polluted water.

City sanitation officials had originally sought to extend the landfill operations by one year, citing an expected $250 million deficit in the next fiscal year and studies that found the annual cost of hauling trash to other, privately owned landfills would be about $8 million more than dumping it in Lopez Canyon.

Cutting the extension to five months was seen as a compromise with neighbors who have complained about the dump’s noise and odors for more than 10 years. But during Friday’s two-hour hearing, many residents said they are skeptical about the Bureau of Sanitation’s commitment to closing the dump by July 1, and said they believe the bureau will seek another extension, again citing an emergency need for landfill space.

“We were promised closure of Lopez Canyon in 1990. It didn’t happen. We were promised closure in February. It didn’t happen. Now we’re being promised it will close on July 1,” said Rob Zapple, a Kagel Canyon resident whose home overlooks the landfill.

“There are no guarantees.”

City Councilman Richard Alarcon, a dump opponent, also urged the committee to deny the permit. But Robert Frazee, chairman of the Permitting and Enforcement Committee, said the panel’s “hands are tied” on the issue.

“We cannot place conditions on the way [the city] operates the landfill. We can only pass or deny a permit application based on whether certain criteria are met,” Frazee said. “Sometimes the public feels we are an appeals court, but we are not.”

Frazee added that he is confident the city will close the dump as scheduled. “With all the public pressure, I think they’ve got to,” he said.