Water Panel Agrees to More Tests Near Sunshine Landfill

Amid worries about potential cancer-causing contaminants, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed Thursday to further test water supplies at the site of a planned expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Granada Hills.

Chairwoman Susan Cloke said the board decided to delay action on a staff recommendation to adopt regulations governing the construction, operation and maintenance of the landfill expansion until it can better assess potential health risks.

The board directed staff members to return in a month with a plan to analyze water supplies at the expansion site. The landfill is operated by Browning-Ferris Industries.

Board members were swayed by about 35 community residents who expressed concern about incidences of cancer within their own families and neighbors’ families, Cloke said.

Mary Edwards, who heads the anti-landfill group, North Valley Coalition, told the board that her two children have been diagnosed with cancer. The longtime Granada Hills resident said she was “delighted” with the board’s decision to delay approval: “Anything that is a postponement is like a condemned man getting a stay of execution.”

Cloke, of the water quality control board, said the panel “had no way of assessing whether or not the incidences of cancer were related to the landfill or whether [they] had any relationship to the landfill’s impact on water quality.” But, she added: “We felt that we needed to have a significantly higher level of information regarding health effects.”

Greg Loughnane, district manager for Browning-Ferris’ L.A. operations, acknowledged that potential carcinogens were found in one well at the proposed expansion site, but said that a staff report concluded that the well has been clean for the last nine months. Other water samples showed contamination levels well below the maximum levels allowed in drinking water.

“I think the water board staff has pretty much expressed that, in terms of groundwater protection, we have everything in place,” Loughnane said, adding that concerns regarding hazardous materials were addressed in two environmental impact reports issued in 1993 and 1999.

Even so, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn on Thursday urged water quality control board members to deny a permit to enlarge the landfill until questions on its impact on local groundwater sources are resolved.

“As a result of the site’s close proximity to the main water supply for the city of Los Angeles, and the omnipresent danger of groundwater contamination occurring as a result of activities at the proposed site, it is imperative that we place the strictest amount of scrutiny upon any activity within this area,” Hahn wrote in a letter to Cloke.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said in a prepared statement that the proposed landfill expansion leaves too many unanswered questions regarding the health and safety of San Fernando Valley residents.

Last month, the California Integrated Waste Management Board awarded Browning-Ferris a permit to expand its trash-dumping operation from an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County into the city neighborhood of Granada Hills.

Before construction can begin, the project needs approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, the state Department of Fish and Game and the city of Los Angeles.