AGENCIES MAY JOIN TO MONITOR LANDFILL.

Byline: Alexa Haussler Staff Writer

Los Angeles City Attorney Jim Hahn on Thursday called for local and state environmental agencies to review all violations at the Sunshine Canyon Landfill for possible criminal prosecution.

Action in response to dozens of citations recently for gas emission problems at the controversial trash dump in Granada Hills, Hahn asked seven state and local environmental agencies to band together to investigate possible criminal acts and to monitor future operations at the landfill.

``We're inviting them to be part of a Sunshine Canyon working group so that all the different agencies involved can share investigation of and work toward correcting these problems,'' said Hahn, a candidate for mayor.

The Daily News reported in October that regulators have hit the landfill with an unprecedented number of violations in recent months, including the emission of high levels of carcinogen-laced gas. The information came to light after Granada Hills-area residents unsuccessfully tried to block a City Council vote that allowed expansion of operations at the waste site.

Sunshine Canyon neighbors called Hahn's announcement a long-awaited hopeful sign.

``Finally, somebody is going to pay attention to us,'' said Kim Thompson, spokeswoman for the North Valley Coalition, the group that opposed the expansion. ``This is really good news, (if) for no other reason, it'll be another set of eyes to watch over them.''

But Arnie Berghoff, a spokesman for landfill operator Browning Ferris Industries, said the company has corrected the gas emission problems and that all of the environmental regulatory agencies have been notified.

``The idea that there's a criminal violation is almost to the point of being absurd. These were gas emission violations that should not have happened. BFI will never make an excuse for them and they've corrected them all and it won't happen again,'' Berghoff said.

Dave Edwards, newly hired general manager of Sunshine Canyon Landfill, sent a letter to nearby residents assuring that ``immediate corrective actions have been taken to correct the existing problem and to ensure that there will be no further violations.''

The letter states that tests showed that none of the harmful gas left the landfill property and that ``there has never been a threat to the health and safety of the general public or landfill workers.''

Edwards also wrote in the letter that the landfill operators are taking the following actions:

--Hiring an additional environmental compliance officer and a field services consultant company.

--Training on-site personnel to walk the landfill for several hours a day to monitor environmental compliance.

--Installing additional gas wells and repairing cracks in the cover material that seals the gas inside the landfill.

Still, Thompson said she and other neighbors worry that gas leaked into their neighborhoods, posing potential health problems.

Hahn said the possibility of criminal penalties might force Browning Ferris Industries to step up health and safety efforts.

``Sometimes just paying fines is factored in as a cost of doing business and nobody ever factors in somebody doing jail as a cost of doing business,'' he said. ``The threat of something like that is much more significant.''

Hahn sent a letter Thursday to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the state Air Resources Board, the state Integrated Waste Management Board, the state Water Resources Control Board, the state Environmental Protection Agency and the regional Water Control Board.

He said he approached the other agencies because the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office does not have a criminal investigative arm and relies on outside agencies to bring them cases to prosecute.

``We think that many times the option of even looking at a criminal violation is often ignored. We wanted to remind these agencies that . . . if they have evidence of violations of the law, those should be forwarded to the appropriate prosecuting agencies,'' Hahn said.

Although the major Los Angeles mayoral candidates have publicly expressed opposition to Sunshine Canyon Landfill expansion in the past, Hahn - until Thursday - had declined to comment specifically because of pending lawsuits and his role as city attorney, he said.

One mayoral candidate, City Councilman Joel Wachs, scoffed when told of Hahn's plan.

``Welcome to the crowd. I'm happy he is getting religion,'' Wachs said.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, chairman of the council's Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee, called Hahn's proposal ``an interesting approach.''

``I feel very strongly that the operators of Sunshine Canyon must be in compliance with the law and nothing else will be tolerated,'' Ridley-Thomas said. ``I doubt that the council would be in any mood to tolerate a minor infraction let alone a major violation.''

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Map: Sunshine Canyon Landfill