Expansion of Landfill Has Its Neighbors Crying Foul
Mary Ellen Crosby loves her neighbors.
She keeps a laminated telephone list with their names right at the top--the people she has relied on for 32 years to water her plants when she is away, whose children walked to Van Gogh Elementary School with her kids decades ago and whose grandchildren now play with hers in the park across the street.
But there’s another, less welcome neighbor--another long-timer--whose presence casts a troubling shadow over this upper-middle-class haven of red tile roofs and outdoor grills.
“You see that ridge of trees?” Crosby asks, glaring at a nearby hill from the foot of her driveway on Van Gogh Street. “That’s the buffer zone. That’s where the dump is. Right on top of us.”
Neighbors have likened the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, a 41-year-old dump that stretches across the city’s northwest boundary into unincorporated Los Angeles County, to a many-headed monster that takes a beating but just won’t die. Many rejoiced when the landfill closed in 1991 after its city permit expired.
A few years later, it was back. In 1996, the county granted Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., the landfill’s operator, permission to start dumping trash on 215 acres next to the old dump.
Frustrated homeowners chalked up another loss on a long-running scoreboard Feb. 25, when the Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved Browning-Ferris’ plan to expand the landfill into 494 acres in Granada Hills.
The commission followed a staff recommendation that said the project would have little effect on the surrounding community. The proposal now heads to the City Council.
“Whatever small battles we’ve won, it just feels like we’re powerless to do anything in the long run,” said Carol Cotter, a mother of two and a neighbor of Crosby.
Browning-Ferris, a Houston-based waste-management company that reaped about $4.7 billion in worldwide revenue last year, has tried to soothe the Granada Hills opposition in many ways, from speaking at community meetings to donating a $250,000 swimming pool to the new North Valley YMCA.
“As long as we’re operating a project in that neighborhood, we want to be a good corporate neighbor,” said BFI spokesman Arnie Berghoff.
Inviting people to tour the landfill “is the biggest way to convince people that we’re not a nuisance, we’re a resource,” he said. “The opponents make it sound really horrible. But if people come for a tour, they will see what a well-run facility it is.”
Not everyone who lives in the area is opposed to the landfill. Some residents praise BFI’s corporate citizenship, saying the company has been a strong supporter of youth sports leagues and other community programs. Others say BFI has done a good job running the dump.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re doing a lot of good things for the community,” said Bill Perry, a Granada Hills resident who runs the registration for the local American Youth Soccer Organization league. BFI has donated portable toilets and trash services to the league and recently pledged $80,000 for a new field, Perry said.
“I really have never seen any problem with [the landfill],” he said. “We have to put it somewhere, and I don’t think we could find a much better place, actually.”
Other longtime homeowners here remain unconvinced, suspicious of every outreach effort by the garbage giant. They complain of past problems with the landfill: the acrid stench of rotting garbage, the scraps of paper tossed into their yards by the wind, the gritty dust coating their patios and lawn furniture.
If things are better now, they say, it’s only because the portion of the landfill closest to the homes has been closed for seven years. The proposed expansion would bring the dump within half a mile of some residents.
“They’re all holding their breaths and waiting,” said Rosemarie Buehler, a local Realtor who regularly visits about 600 homes in the area to drum up business. “I hear a lot of comments that if [the expansion] comes through, ‘We’re out of here.’ ”
Some people have already left. One couple who lives on Mission Tierra Way, a cul-de-sac closest to the area proposed for the landfill’s expansion, said their next-door neighbor sold her house within weeks of hearing details of BFI’s plan at a public hearing last fall.
“People have literally resigned,” Buehler said. “They’re not going to fight any further. Many have said, ‘We have tried. We have been to all the hearings, we have written letters. We are wasting our breath and time. BFI is too strong.’ ”
The Planning Commission approved about 200 conditions aimed at reducing the effect of traffic, air pollution, dust and noise that widening the landfill would cause. The environmental impact report, however, said significant problems of air pollution and dust will remain.
Anne Ziliak, whose daughter is a first-grader at Van Gogh Elementary, said she hasn’t given up hope of defeating the expansion. The best tactic for opponents now, she said, is to comb through BFI’s proposal and focus on getting rid of the worst parts.
“I don’t think the fight is gone,” she said. “We go through periods, like a roller coaster.”
