DUMP GETS NEW LIFE CITY DELAYS LEAVE SUNSHINE CANYON AS ONLY OPTION FOR TRASH.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer After four years of promises to get out of Sunshine Canyon Landfill, 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. officials found themselves without an alternative Monday when the only other company vying vy·ing v. Present participle of vie. vying vie for the half-billion-dollar trash contract pulled out of the competition. Waste Management had proposed diverting di·vert v. di·vert·ed, di·vert·ing, di·verts v.tr. 1. To turn aside from a course or direction: Traffic was diverted around the scene of the accident. 2. L.A.'s garbage from the Granada Hills dump to landfills in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley and Riverside County at an estimated $22 million more per year. In making its surprise announcement Monday, Waste Management accused city officials of foot-dragging in talks that were no closer to completion than they were two years ago. ``(Waste Management) is concerned about the city's sincerity in pursuing waste exportation when the city appears to be no closer to having an overall, comprehensive plan to address the solid waste needs of the city's residents,'' Dan Shoener, the firm's vice president for the Los Angeles market, said in a letter to the Bureau of Sanitation sanitation: see plumbing; sanitary science. . The company's operations director, Doug Corcoran, questioned whether the city's leadership was serious about alternatives to Sunshine Canyon Landfill despite Mayor James Hahn's repeated commitment to stop dumping there. ``We don't believe it's real,'' Corcoran said in an interview. ``I don't believe it's going to result in anything other than going right back to Sunshine.'' The withdrawal makes Browning Ferris Industries the de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. winner of the lucrative contract and means Sunshine Canyon Landfill will most likely continue to take residential trash at least through 2011. Longtime long·time adj. Having existed or persisted for a long time: a longtime friend; a longtime resident of Detroit. longtime Adjective opponents of the Granada Hills dump were disappointed at the decision that comes just as the City Council was supposed to begin to consider the trash contract. Though it wasn't perfect, the Waste Management proposal would have significantly reduced the number of diesel trucks heading to Granada Hills each day. And Waste Management had offered to boost recycling recycling, the process of recovering and reusing waste products—from household use, manufacturing, agriculture, and business—and thereby reducing their burden on the environment. and help the city develop waste-to-energy or other technologies to replace landfills. ``Why would you withdraw it now? Maybe you should have stuck in it, you might have been pleasantly surprised,'' said Wayde Hunter, president of the North Valley Coalition. ``They're the largest trash company and I'm sure they could have made a little bit more adjustment here and there to make it more palatable pal·at·a·ble adj. 1. Acceptable to the taste; sufficiently agreeable in flavor to be eaten. 2. Acceptable or agreeable to the mind or sensibilities: a palatable solution to the problem. to City Council.'' Waste Management officials said they saw little chance of the council agreeing to ship the city's trash elsewhere, especially after budget analysts urged a $27 per month trash collection fee just to cover the existing cost of residential garbage service. Hahn's spokeswoman Sahar Moridani said the mayor was always sincere in his promise. ``This is obviously a new wrinkle Wrinkle A feature of a new product or security intended to entice a buyer. in the Sunshine Canyon issue ... Like any other big decision, this is something we're going to have to look at with the incoming administration.'' Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. agreed with Hahn's plan not renew the Sunshine Canyon Landfill contract, but the City Council will make that decision by June 30, before he is sworn in on July 1. Villaraigosa spokesman Joe Ramallo said the mayor-elect wants to take all steps to close Sunshine Canyon. ``He made clear throughout this campaign and in his positions for the past several years that he does not believe in urban landfills ... He does not want to see Sunshine Canyon taking any trash.'' Sanitation Director Rita Robinson said Waste Management's withdrawal leaves her department with little choice for the 3,600 tons per day of trash collected at single-family homes and small apartment complexes. ``Since that was the only other alternative, that leaves us with BFI BFI - brute force and ignorance , our current contractor.'' Robinson said she could understand why Waste Management pulled out of the contract, given the increasing antagonism antagonism /an·tag·o·nism/ (an-tag´o-nizm) opposition or contrariety between similar things, as between muscles, medicines, or organisms; cf. antibiosis. an·tag·o·nism n. from Antelope Valley leaders unwilling to take L.A. trash and the firm's focus on its proposed transfer station at Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley. ``We were trying to be sensitive but we're government. We tend to delay things.'' Robinson will consult with the city attorney, the City Council and Villaraigosa on what to do with the city's trash contract. Under Hahn's 2002 executive order to seek alternatives to Sunshine Canyon, the Bureau of Sanitation twice sought companies to take L.A. trash outside city limits. Both times, the choice came down to two companies - Browning Ferris Industries and Waste Management. But Waste Management's proposal angered many in the Antelope Valley, including Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San , who tried to bar L.A. trash from the Lancaster and Antelope Valley landfills. Last month, Palmdale City Manager Robert W. Toone Jr. warned that Los Angeles could not legally send its trash to the Antelope Valley without first doing a lengthy environmental study of traffic and air pollution from incoming diesel trucks. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 boxes Box: (1) L.A.'s TRASH DILEMMA SOURCE: Daily News research Daily News (2) WASTE MANAGEMENT PULLS OUT |
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