Decision on Trash Pact Delayed Again

After a nearly two-hour debate, the Los Angeles City Council again delayed deciding whether it would renew a contract to take more than 900,000 tons of garbage each year to the Sunshine Canyon Landfill above Granada Hills.

Browning-Ferris Industries, the owner of the dump, agreed to give the city until Aug. 5 to renew the contract for five years, beginning in July 2006. This is the second extension that BFI has given the city.

The often-heated debate largely involved what the city would do if it didn’t renew the contract and then BFI chose not to accept the city’s garbage next July.

City Bureau of Sanitation officials told the council that options were limited and would probably involve shipping at least some garbage to landfills elsewhere in Los Angeles County or the region.

Officials also said that could cost more than dumping the trash at the Sunshine Canyon facility.

Many council members said they would like to move toward a plan written by Councilman Greig Smith to stop using landfills and instead have trash converted to usable products at facilities to be built across the city. But the plan faces questions of cost and feasibility.

“The real thrust of it is: If we don’t vote for extending the contract, then each one of us should be accountable for implementing a plan today for taking care of our trash,” Councilman Ed Reyes said. “I’m not sure that any one of us is ready to do that.”