BFI'S BID TO COMBINE LANDFILLS DUMPED.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

In a surprise decision hailed by dump opponents, the Los Angeles County Planning Commission voted Monday against a permit that would allow the operator of Sunshine Canyon Landfill to merge two separate dumps into one gigantic landfill.

The proposal would have allowed Browning-Ferris Industries to run its side-by-side dumps - one in the county, the other within the city limits - as a single operation.

But in their 3-2 decision, the commissioners went beyond the Sunshine Canyon Landfill issue and raised serious concerns about how the region handles its trash.

They also raised questions about traffic from trash trucks, the need for more recycling and trash-transfer stations and the lack of a guaranteed closure date for the Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

And while BFI will still be able to operate its separate landfills, residents of Granada Hills, who have been fighting the dump for years, said they were pleased that the county board recognized their concerns.

``We realize we're not going to close the landfill. If we have to have it then we want them under the strictest conditions possible,'' said Anne Ziliak, a member of the North Valley Coalition, a vocal opponent of the dump.

Dump opponents complained that provisions of the proposed permit were too lax. They wanted a guaranteed date for the landfill's closure, along with a requirement that a double-liner be installed under all new sections of the landfill.

Sunshine Canyon accepts 12,100 tons of trash a day, most of it from Los Angeles residents, and has an estimated capacity of 90 million tons. BFI says the dump could operate for 26 more years, although an engineer hired by opponents has said it could be much longer.

BFI District Manager Greg Loughnane said he was surprised by the commission's decision because the company was simply asking to make its operation more efficient, with one set of equipment and one daily disposal area.

``It was kind of unusual that they focused on issues that we have no control over. We had a simple request in front of them, which was to combine two landfills,'' he said. ``They all recognized that but, I feel, they got hung up on regional traffic issues and transfer stations.

``We're definitely stuck in the middle of city-county politics.''

The company can appeal the decision to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

This permit is one of the last approvals BFI needed to merge the two dumps.

Environmental documents dating back to the early 1990s anticipated that the two landfills would eventually be combined, although city and county leaders have disagreed over issuing the permit.

Granada Hills-area Councilman Greig Smith was behind a City Council motion urging the county commission to deny the land-use permit, which he said would weaken the city's tough controls at Sunshine Canyon. And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office opposed the permit because he didn't want to lose any authority over Sunshine Canyon.

Meanwhile, members of the Planning Commission said they have serious concerns about the region's trash policies. They want to see more facilities to sort recyclables from trash and consolidate garbage into semitrailers to reduce the number of smaller garbage trucks on the road.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's appointee, Harold Helsley, initially said he supported the BFI permit but changed his mind Monday and became the swing vote because he hoped to spur a change in the region's trash management.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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Sunshine Canyon Landfill - Granada Hills

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