Mailers Seek Support for a Bigger Landfill

As it prepares to seek final permits and host a fact-finding tour by state legislators, the operator of Sunshine Canyon Landfill has launched a mail campaign to win support from Los Angeles residents for its planned expansion into Granada Hills in January.

Browning-Ferris Industries spent about $25,000 to send 58,000 glossy mailers throughout Los Angeles, including much of the San Fernando Valley, just two months before it asks the county Regional Planning Commission to increase permitted dumping at the landfill to match what the city has approved.

“They are trying to expand in the county so they are putting a lot of pressure on people, warning that we are running out of dump space,” said Mary Edwards of the North Valley Coalition, which opposes the expansion.

The mailers say Los Angeles needs Sunshine Canyon to dispose of its trash because other area dumps, including Spadra Landfill in Pomona and Azusa Landfill in West Covina, have reached capacity and closed, and Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley may close in 2003.

“Sunshine Canyon Landfill is tucked away in an isolated northwest canyon of the San Fernando Valley, and has the capacity to manage our waste for many years to come,” the mailer says. “Sunshine Canyon ensures that our trash will always be disposed of in a safe and environmentally sound manner.”

The mailer asks for permission to use the recipient’s name publicly as a supporter of the landfill.

The campaign, which includes ads in local newspapers, is aimed at educating Los Angeles residents about the need for an expanded landfill and countering negative media reports, said Arnie Berghoff, a BFI spokesman.

He denied that it is timed to coincide with the upcoming county planning hearings.

“BFI would like to keep people informed about the progress we have made at the landfill,” he said.

In October, the county planning panel will consider an application to change its permit for the county side of the landfill.

In 1991, the county authorized BFI to dump about 6,600 tons of trash a day in the portion of the landfill in an unincorporated area of the county. But the city of Los Angeles gave permission in 1999 for BFI to expand into Granada Hills, dumping 5,500 tons there daily.

For more flexibility on where it can dispose of the trash, BFI is asking the county for permission to dump all of it in either the city portion or the county part, depending on conditions on any given day.

Berghoff said that on windy days, the operator may want to dump all 12,100 tons in a canyon in the county section of the landfill, away from residential areas of Los Angeles.

Even so, Edwards and others oppose the application.

“That is too much to dump in one place,” she said.

If the permits are approved, BFI plans to begin preparing the landfill in the city portion in January and begin receiving trash there three or four months later, Berghoff said.

Members of the state Senate Select Committee on Urban Landfills plan to tour Sunshine Canyon on Wednesday as part of a fact-finding mission. The panel is looking into whether the state is properly overseeing trash dumps.