Mayor Moves to Block Permit for Landfill Expansion

Mayor James K. Hahn moved Friday to block a state permit for expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Los Angeles as officials prepare to seek bids from private firms interested in hauling trash out of the city, possibly to remote dumps in the desert.

The action is the latest development in a long-running debate over the landfill, an argument that helped fuel last year’s unsuccessful secession campaign in the San Fernando Valley.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council approved the landfill expansion in 1999, but Hahn promised during his mayoral bid, and again during the secession campaign, that he would work to block the expansion.

Browning-Ferris Industries applied last year for a state permit to expand trash dumping from an unincorporated part of the county into Granada Hills.

Responding to complaints by some of the landfill’s neighbors, Hahn directed the city’s Environmental Affairs Department to withhold its required approval and not forward BFI’s application to the California Integrated Waste Management Board until the city attorney’s office can complete an analysis of legal options to prevent the expansion.

While that process is underway, representatives of the city’s Public Works Board said the panel plans to meet Monday to consider requesting that companies submit competing proposals for hauling trash out of Los Angeles.

“For too long, our community has shouldered the burden of multiple landfills,” Hahn said in his letter to the city environmental agency. “It has been my position and the will of the community to prevent any expansion of the landfills in our community and to make every reasonable effort to hasten their closure.”

Hahn’s latest actions, however, may only delay, not prevent, the landfill expansion. BFI argues that its application for expansion is complete, so the city must forward the document to the state for approval.

The city Environmental Affairs Department acts as the state board’s local enforcement agency for checking whether applications comply with state rules.

A BFI official said he understood the Environmental Affairs Department had deemed the application to be complete, so it could therefore be forwarded to Sacramento for action.

Greg Loughnane, BFI’s district manager for Los Angeles, said he doubted that bids the city may receive for long-distance hauling would make that option appealing. He said costs in other areas of the country for hauling trash by rail are two or three times what BFI charges at Sunshine Canyon.

“They are going to look at the cost and say, ‘How can we impose these exorbitant fees?’ ” Loughnane said.

In addition to the practical considerations of long-distance hauling, some officials say that if the city agency fails to forward a complete application, it could lose its status as the state board’s local enforcement agency. Hahn addressed that concern in his letter to city agency director Detrich Allen.

“While I am aware of EAD’s status as our Local Enforcement Agency and the potential consequence that my decision may have upon that status, I believe that the consequences of your department’s potential approval of BFI’s application are even greater,” Hahn wrote.

The mayor’s action was welcomed by Kim Thompson, vice president of the anti-landfill North Valley Coalition.

“That’s excellent,” said Thompson, whom Hahn appointed to the city’s Environmental Affairs Commission. Thompson, however, predicted the mayor’s directive will most likely only mean a temporary delay.

“What’s going to happen is the application is going to be held in limbo while the city attorney looks at it, but when he doesn’t find anything,” Thompson said.

For a long-term trash-hauling deal to work, officials need to overcome significant questions about the cost. It costs the city $23 per ton to dump trash in Sunshine Canyon.

Hauling the waste out of the city could more than double the cost to $60 or more, and there is uncertainty whether any other landfill in this area has the capacity to handle Los Angeles’ trash, according to Enrique Zaldivar, assistant director of the city Sanitation Bureau.

All told, the trash-hauling contract could be worth $25 million to $50 million, city officials said, with transportation of the material alone conceivably costing $25 per ton.

Nevertheless, a competitive process would give the mayor and council the data that the city needs to weigh the potential increased cost of hauling trash out of the city versus the political cost of continuing to dump in the city. Several council candidates this year have said they would support homeowners paying more to have the trash taken outside the city.

“This will give us some solid numbers for the policymakers to consider,” Zaldivar said.

L.A. is contractually obligated to dump its trash in Sunshine Canyon until June 30, 2006.

If the city cannot find space to dump trash closer to home at Puente Hills Landfill, it may have to consider transporting trash to remote desert dumps, officials said.