Big Stink Greets Links at Landfill

Given a choice, many folks would prefer living next door to rolling hills of manicured greens than beside mounds of dirt-covered garbage.

But Ralph Burns, who lives near Lopez Canyon Landfill, isn’t sold on a city proposal to build a golf course on top of the dump.

“I don’t like it,” Burns said of the idea. “With the landfill settling and all the hills and trash in there, I just don’t think it’s a good place for a golf course.”

And Burns is not the only one worried. Others, including some state and city officials, have also voiced concerns over landfill-to-golf-course conversions, noting that some have been plagued with environmental problems including ground-water contamination and leaks of methane gas, which forms as garbage decays.

But City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who is spearheading the proposal to convert Lopez Canyon Landfill into a golf course, contends that in the case of Lopez Canyon the land has already been compromised and leasing the city-owned dump to a golf course could generate about $1 million annually for the city.

“It’s the concept of enhancing a brown field with toxic problems underneath,” Alarcon said. “Environmentalists have told me that, if you’re going to put a golf course anywhere, a landfill is the best place.”

The concept is already heading toward the drawing board.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Board of Public Works unanimously agreed to seek proposals for the design, construction and 20-year operation of a golf course at the 147-acre site, northeast of the Ronald Reagan Freeway and Foothill Freeway interchange.

If Lopez Canyon does undergo a reincarnation from a dump--which stopped taking trash in 1996--to a swank golfers’ paradise, Alarcon and other supporters say there won’t be the usual concerns about protection of wildlife and the environment and fears about using lawn fertilizers and pesticides.

“The main thing is, building a golf course is better than letting the land remain brown and barren,” said Rick Best, policy director for Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based nonprofit environmental group.

Some city and state officials, however, say the “greening” of landfills can lead to environmental problems.

Irrigating acres of golf course greens can force toxins into the ground water and increase the rate of methane gas production, which can in turn suffocate plants and trees, said Peter Janicki, a waste management engineer with the California Integrated Solid Waste Management Board.

Shoal Canyon Golf Course in Glendale and Mountain Gate Golf and Country Club in Los Angeles, both built on top of landfills in the mid-1970s, have had ground-water contamination, methane gas leaks and plant poisonings, but both sites have devised solutions to those problems, officials say.

Those solutions do carry a high price tag, and can add more than $2 million to the $5-million to $7-million average price for golf course construction, said Tom Devlin, construction manager for American Golf, the company that constructed and maintains the Mountain Gate course in the Sepulveda Pass.

Constant repair of methane gas pipes or leaks can lead to doubling or tripling of maintenance costs at landfill golf courses, he added. Devlin said courses operated on canyon landfills typically experience more ground movement and settling, causing methane gas pipes to bend and crack.

With more costly construction and maintenance expenses, Devlin said golf course companies expect to lease or buy the landfill property for a bottom-dollar price. Paying $1 million annually to lease the property simply wouldn’t work for some companies, he said.

Tom Shepland, president of Wadsworth Golf Construction Co. in Hercules, Calif., agreed, calling the city’s proposal to lease the property for up to $1 million annually “remarkable.”

But Alarcon said his proposal would certainly make money for the city, whether it’s in the form of lease revenue or interest from a loan to a golf course company.

The loan, he said, could come from the $18-million city fund set up for the dump’s closure, a project that is now about 11% complete. “As part of the closure plan, a golf course company could assume responsibility for part of the closure, and we could lend them the money to build a golf course,” Alarcon said.

In the end, companies that are considering building and operating a course have to scrutinize their profit in the deal.

“It’s clearly going to cost more to build and operate a golf course on a landfill,” Devlin said. “So it better be a great golf course in a great area so you can get great greens fees.”

Expensive greens fees and club memberships could offset the additional costs of building a Lopez Canyon golf course, but that may also price out the Lake View Terrace community. Mountain Gate, for example, charges over $30,000 for club memberships, Alarcon said.

Ensuring community access to the golf course could be part of the city’s negotiations with prospective companies, Alarcon added.

Still, some Lake View Terrace residents say they don’t want a golf course next door, and would rather the landfill remain in a more “natural state,” said Barbara Fine, an environmental consultant for Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., a homeowners group.

“Many members of the community would like to see a more passive recreational use of the land, like trails or [a] picnic area,” Fine said. “The community hasn’t rallied to wage a fight yet, but we will if the golf course really starts moving forward.”

Lake View Terrace resident Phyllis Hines said she thinks Alarcon’s primary motive to put a golf course at the site is to offset the additional costs of diverting Lopez Canyon trash to two privately owned landfills, Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley and Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills.

Alarcon said he hadn’t thought of that, but would consider any offset to the city’s solid waste costs a benefit.

Since Lopez Canyon Landfill closed with five years of capacity left, the city has annually spent about $8 million more on solid waste disposal, said Steve Fortune, manager of the city’s Solid Resources Engineering and Construction Division.

“I think Alarcon’s hope is to recover some of the costs for paying for the garbage to go somewhere else,” Hines said. “But a golf course just doesn’t seem very prudent with the ground settling. We don’t know how it would work out.”