COUNCIL WON'T TRASH DUMP PLAN BFI CONTRACT, RATE DISPUTE STILL LOOM OVER SUNSHINE.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

City leaders pledged Friday to divert 600 tons of trash daily from Sunshine Canyon Landfill within a year - but they still have to persuade the dump's owner not to hike trash rates if they do.

The City Council has four days before it must decide whether to renew the city's five-year, $157 million contract with Browning-Ferris Industries, which has promised to raise its rates unless its Sunshine Canyon Landfill gets all the city's trash.

BFI officials have refused the city's request to reopen negotiations, frustrating city leaders who expressed shock that the company would not at least meet with its biggest customer.

``There should be no vendor we deal with - when you're talking about multimillions of dollars potentially over the next several years - that they refuse to talk to the city of Los Angeles. That is something that is unacceptable,'' said Councilman Bernard Parks, who sought a meeting with BFI earlier in the week.

But BFI District Manager Greg Loughnane said the company extended its contract deadline by eight months in order to give city officials a chance to study landfill alternatives and revise the contract.

``Throughout the process we have shown nothing but respect for the council and good faith,'' Loughnane said in a phone interview. ``For the city to wait to the last moment and demand significant changes is not fair.''

The city's current contract with BFI requires Los Angeles to send all its trash to the Granada Hills landfill in order to qualify for the price of $25 per ton, which totals $29 million per year.

BFI says if the city sends some trash to other landfills, the per-ton price could jump to $45.

In addition to higher rates to BFI, the city would have to pay higher rates to other companies to haul the trash to more remote landfills they own in Kings and Riverside counties.

The additional money would come from the same fund that pays for such services as policing and street repair, making it difficult for the City Council to follow through on its pledge to send 600 tons elsewhere next year.

The council voted last year to adopt a policy to reduce the amount of waste going to Sunshine Canyon by 600 tons per day or 17 percent in the first year, with more reductions each over five years until the city no longer uses the landfill.

If BFI refuses to renegotiate the contract and it costs millions more to send trash elsewhere, the City Council will have decide whether to fulfill its pledge to adhere to the policy.

``We have a really tough decision to make if this doesn't work out the way we want it to,'' City Council President Eric Garcetti said.

The policy was part of Councilman Greig Smith's RENEW LA plan to reduce the city's dependence on urban landfills in favor of developing more recycling programs and trash-to-energy technology.

``I think this is a good solution. It's not a perfect solution. In a perfect world we would close Sunshine Canyon Landfill tomorrow, if there was a legal way to do that,'' Smith said.

The council motion ``maintains the policy statement as our guiding light that we will get out of Sunshine Canyon over a period of five years as promised to the North Valley and as promised to the San Fernando Valley.''

kerry.cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com