Valley Perspective : Report on County’s Landfills Offers Solid Base for Planning

Seven years ago, the Legislature was concerned about California’s ability to deal with all of the trash it generates. And so, it passed a bill requiring regular and thorough reports on landfills throughout the state. The idea was to keep a keen eye on storage capacity, project disposal needs years in advance, and to outline various solutions.

By the end of February, we will again have such a report in hand for the 88 cities of Los Angeles County and for its unincorporated areas. Basically, the report is designed to tell elected officials and the public about where we are, what we have and what we need.

If this sounds like the most boring issue of the year, guess again. This is the kind of work that generally deserves far more attention (and input) than it usually receives. These assessments help illuminate the regional and even international information that can guide the way we ought to view the opening, closing or expansion of specific landfill sites.

Although the map here shows the 10 largest landfills in Los Angeles County, this year’s report will delve into the operations of 20 landfills that play a role in county refuse operations.

Here’s the catch, though: Every solution for the 40,000 tons of refuse disposed by the county each day presents a source of outrage for someone else, and another potential legal snafu that is generally ill-afforded by the participants.

For example, Lopez Canyon finally will be closed by Los Angeles city’s Bureau of Sanitation on June 30. Neighbors will rejoice, but part of the hoped-for solution for the 3,000 tons of trash accepted at Lopez each day would be the reopening of Sunshine Canyon Landfill (which can take 6,000 tons a day) on July 1. That’s a prospect that has sparked much ire among its neighbors. And folks are fighting, with an almost revolutionary fervor, the plan for a huge new landfill at Elsmere Canyon.

But let’s say you’ve latched onto the regional viewpoint, and look at that shift as a net increase of 3,000 tons of capacity. Not really.

The BKK landfill in West Covina, which once took in 12,000 tons of refuse a day, is effectively closed. The current permit for Chiquita Canyon Landfill (5,000 tons a day) expires in November 1997. Spadra Landfill in Pomona accepts up to 15,000 tons of refuse a week and will close a year later, in 1998.

Also, a small percentage of refuse dumped here comes from elsewhere: Alameda, Kern, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Ventura counties and even Mexico. But the governments of those jurisdictions do pay to have their trash dumped here. Some of our trash winds up elsewhere too. Orange County, for instance, because of its financial crisis, is now accepting refuse from Los Angeles. But it’s a small amount, every such contract has to be approved by Orange County supervisors, and no one knows how long the arrangement will last.

It’s not possible to simply increase capacities at the landfill of least resistance. They all have tonnage limits. Some, such as Burbank, Scholl Canyon, Brand Park, San Clemente, Savage Canyon and Calabasas, accept refuse only from particular jurisdictions, regions, or government agencies. Some, such as Peck Road and Reliance Pit, accept only certain types of refuse.

It would be reasonable to call for a vast increase in so-called “waste to energy” sites that burn waste to create power. There are only two such sites right now, but such an expansion would receive just as many objections as any basic landfill, based on the environmental and health concerns of potential neighbors.

The landfill report due next month won’t provide any easy answers, but it will at least provide a solid foundation for rational planning.

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10 largest Los Angeles County area landfills

1. Chiquita Canyon

2. Sunshine Canyon (currently closed)

3. Lopez Canyon

4. Calabasas

5. Bradley West

6. Scholl Canyon

7. Azusa Western

8. Spadra

9. BKK

10. Puente Hills

Source: Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County