BERNSON EYES DUMP ALTERNATIVE : TRASH-TO-ENERGY CONCEPT REFLOATED.Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer Citing the closure of Lopez Canyon Landfill and public opposition to new dumps, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. City Councilman Hal Bernson Hal Bernson served as Los Angeles City Councilman for the 12th district. He was chair of the Transportation Committee. Prior to being on the City Council, he served in the Navy. Preceded by Robert M. proposed Wednesday that a city task force reconsider the idea of building trash-to-energy plants. Bernson submitted his proposal on the same day the City Council voted to ask the county to remove Lopez Canyon and other Los Angeles dumps from consideration as potential future landfill sites. The request to delete Lopez, Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons as well as a city portion of Sunshine Canyon from the county's landfill siting plan is a message from the city that the county should not look to Los Angeles for dumps. The vote was unanimous, although Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg Jackie Goldberg (born June 16, 1937) is an American politician and teacher, and a member of the Democratic Party. She is a former member of the California State Assembly. said she has problems with cities not taking responsibility for their own trash. Bernson told the council the answer may rest in giving a new look to trash-to-energy projects. The last such proposal, the $235 million Lancer incinerator in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. , was rejected by the City Council in 1987 before construction started amid public concerns over the health impact of burning trash. ``I hope all of you will seriously consider some other means of dealing with solid waste in the future where we don't have to put it in landfills,'' Bernson said. ``We can convert it to energy. It can be done throughout the city, not just in poor areas like we tried to do many years ago, which was a mistake.'' Bernson aide Greig Smith Greig Smith is a Los Angeles City Councilman, representing the 12th District, which includes Granada Hills, Northridge and other parts of the Western San Fernando Valley. Smith is also a reserve officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. said that in addition to new, cleaner incineration incineration the act of burning to ashes. plants, there are new burning technologies that use heat and chemicals to convert trash to energy without the smoke stacks and fly ash fly ash n. Fine particulate ash sent up by the combustion of a solid fuel, such as coal, and discharged as an airborne emission or recovered as a byproduct for various commercial uses. Noun 1. associated with old trash burners. ``It's archaic to continue to pollute water and future soil crops and endanger health with landfills,'' Bernson told the council. ``We have to do what other far-thinking communities throughout Europe and Asia are doing, and that is converting it to energy. Even Long Beach is doing that in Los Angeles County.'' His motion would have the city administrative officer, Public Works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. Board and Sanitation Bureau form a task force to review the technology of waste-to-energy plants and where they would best be sited in the city to best take in collected trash and provide electricity to power distribution systems. The task force would also determine the cost and benefits of the proposal and would submit options to the City Council for consideration. Several council members said any trash-to-energy project would have to undergo rigorous scrutiny. ``I would always have serious concerns about anything that would disrupt neighborhoods and add to the air pollution problem,'' said Councilman Marvin Braude Marvin Braude (August 11, 1920—December 7, 2005)served as Los Angeles City Councilman for the 11th district from 1965 to 1997. At various times Mr. Braude (pronounced BROW-dee) served as chair of the Finance and Revenue Committee, the Environmental Quality and Waste , who led the fight against Lancer and heads the council's Environmental Quality Committee, which will consider the motion first. ``You have to put these things somewhere and no one wants it in their neighborhood,'' Braude said. Councilman Nate Holden, another opponent of the Lancer project, said he would support a trash-to-energy project only if it isn't in his district. |
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