Sunshine Canyon Extension Is a Clean, Safe Alternative

Every day, residents of the city of Los Angeles generate 3,500 tons of non-recyclable trash. This figure is down from just a few years ago, thanks to greater participation in the city’s recycling programs. Over the past several years, recycling programs have diverted more than 47% of all materials collected at the curbside from entering landfills.

Despite the success of recycling, there is still a need to dispose of millions of tons of trash in a safe, responsible and environmentally friendly manner.

Over the last three decades, many area landfills reached their capacity and have closed. Spadra and Bradley West landfills are scheduled to close in one year, and Puente Hills Landfill is scheduled to close within three years. Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State and Local Government recently released a report that states, “Our county landfill capacity will soon be exhausted.” Currently, there are a limited number of economically and environmentally viable options for the disposal of our trash.

Some advocate transporting our trash to distant locations and dumping it in previously undisturbed areas such as the Mojave Desert or across state lines. Others advocate putting our trash on a train and sending it to any location that would accept it, no matter what the cost to taxpayers. Neither of these alternatives addresses the enormous costs, both economic and environmental. There is a simple axiom that states that the farther the trash has to travel, the greater the cost. In addition, tipping fees (the cost to place trash in a landfill) vary greatly from landfill to landfill. Exporting trash to distant landfills could cost the city of Los Angeles an additional $15 million to $19 million annually. The cost would be even greater if the trash is transported by rail.

Browning-Ferris Industries has proposed extending its current landfill operations on the county side of Sunshine Canyon into the adjacent inactive city landfill. This proposal will benefit every resident of Los Angeles with lower trash-disposal costs. Over its 25-year life, Sunshine Canyon Landfill will save the taxpayers of Los Angeles hundreds of millions of dollars in disposal fees.

Sunshine Canyon has been a landfill since 1958, and the site was chosen because it is isolated yet near Los Angeles. Los Angeles County recognized the pressing need for landfill space and has permitted BFI to operate a safe, closely monitored and environmentally sound landfill on the county side of Sunshine Canyon since Aug. 5, 1996.

On Feb. 25, after an extensive review, the city of Los Angeles’ Planning Commission approved the landfill extension proposal and added more than 200 operating conditions that BFI must meet to ensure that the landfill extension will operate at the same high safety standards as the current county operation. The Planning Commission’s approval means that BFI’s Sunshine Canyon Landfill extension proposal has undergone a vigorous examination and extensive scrutiny by the city’s land-use, planning, engineering and environmental experts.

Next month, the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee will review the extension proposal. The proposal will go before the entire City Council for a vote in the near future. This City Council vote on the Sunshine Canyon Landfill extension proposal will have a profound effect on the cost of trash disposal and how our tax dollars are spent.

The Sunshine Canyon Landfill extension proposal is a clean, safe and logical continuation of an existing landfill. It is an environmentally sound proposal that will help meet the future demand for landfill space at a reasonable cost. Furthermore, approval of the landfill extension will have a positive effect on the level of other essential services the city can provide.