BFI OWES COUNTY 920 ACRES FAILURE TO HONOR WILDERNESS PACT RAISES QUESTIONS.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Browning Ferris Industries has yet to make good on a 9-year-old agreement to give Los Angeles County roughly 1,000 acres of wilderness bordering Santa Clarita.

BFI agreed in 1992 to turn over the land in return for a county-approved expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, but officials acknowledged Tuesday that the agreement can't be enforced.

The conditions, imposed by 5th District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, did not include a deadline or impose punishment on the company if the lands were not transferred.

``It was more of an inducement to good-faith negotiations rather than a hard and fast rule,'' said Kimel Conway, the acting director of capital projects for the county Department of Parks and Recreation.

Sun Valley-based BFI had pledged to acquire and give the county and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy the 420-acre Bee Canyon and dedicate the 500-acre East Canyon, but the company has not done so.

``I don't understand why these lands weren't transferred,'' said Jim Park, the assistant director of capital projects for the county. ``It has certainly been a long time.''

Keith Hester, BFI's general manager for Los Angeles operations, said he was unfamiliar with the agreement, which was made when BKK Corp. owned the company. Allied Waste now owns BFI. Hester and other BFI representatives declined to comment.

East and Bee canyons are located south of the city in the Newhall Pass.

In recent months, BFI has offered to give Santa Clarita 800 acres of Elsmere Canyon in return for the city's trash hauling contract. The company also has offered to reduce rates by as much as 20 percent for some customers and give deeper discounts for senior citizens.

City officials said Tuesday that they would learn from the county's mistakes.

``If the City Council decides to open the contracts up for bids, and Elsmere becomes a factor, we would make sure the initiation of the contract was tied to the dedication of the land,'' said Jeffrey Lambert, the city's director of Planning and Building Services. ``We'd include a timing mechanism.''

The City Council is scheduled to decide Monday whether to extend the city's current contracts with Santa Clarita/Blue Barrel Disposal and Atlas Disposal Co., or to start a bidding process.

The details of any land dedication could be worked out in the bidding process, which is expected to take about five years, Lambert said.

Six years ago, city officials and residents successfully defeated plans to build a dump in Elsmere Canyon. Since then, the pristine canyon has become a rallying cry against a proposal for a mine in Soledad Canyon, and an emotional issue for many residents.

BFI has applied for the necessary county permits for a dump in Elsmere Canyon. Although BFI's Hester said the company has no plans to build a dump there, it will not withdraw the application.

Members of the North Valley Coalition, a watchdog group that unsuccessfully fought plans to expand the Sunshine Canyon Landfill said the delay is another piece of evidence that BFI does not honor its promises.