Dump Diesel Trash Trucks

With Mayor Richard Riordan already on record in support of expanding the Sunshine Canyon Landfill and with the City Council votes to approve the zone change lined up, council members who oppose the dump are wise to have a Plan B:

Landfill operators should be made to pledge a conversion from diesel trash trucks to cleaner-burning fuels.

Council members who support reopening the city portion of the landfill can defend landfill operator Browning-Ferris Industries’ environmental safeguards all they want. But they can’t argue with a study released earlier this month by the local Air Quality Management District saying the main factor in cancer-causing air pollution is diesel exhaust, mostly from big trucks.

Expanding the Sunshine Canyon dump would send hundreds of diesel trucks each day to the Granada Hills site.

Because fear of cancer can be driven as much by emotion as reason, let’s be clear about the risk here. Everyone agrees a dump is a nuisance. Harder to pin down is how serious a health threat it poses.

Health experts say air pollution can be blamed for only about 0.5% of cancer cases. Far greater danger comes from such well-known causes as food and cigarettes.

Still, 0.5% is considered high for an environmental cause. And diesel engines spewing tiny pieces of carbon soot into the air account for 71% of that risk. (About 20% comes from cars and other vehicles and about 10% from refineries, aerospace factories and other plants.)

Unlike the health risks of smoking cigarettes, say, or choosing to eat or not eat certain foods, cancer caused by environmental factors is considered an involuntary risk because people cannot personally control it.

The residents of Granada Hills cannot--apparently--personally control whether the landfill, already shut down once, is reopened near their neighborhood, though they have fought vigorously against it. But the City Council can--and should--speed the disappearance of diesel trucks driving to and from that landfill.

Skeptics say it’s not that easy. Clean-fuel trucks can cost $25,000 to $60,000 more than the already pricey regular diesel trucks. And a pair of clean-fuel trucks bought by the city two years ago couldn’t handle the West Valley hills.

But technological gains are moving fast, largely because of regulatory pressure: new hybrid gasoline-powered cars are virtually emission-free. Diesel engine makers have spent millions of dollars on research in recent years. Let the city of Los Angeles do its part to speed practical use of that research in lower-polluting trash trucks.

The City Council should speed the disappearance of such polluting vehicles driving to and from Sunshine Canyon Landfill.