DUMPED ON - AGAIN! CITY COUNCIL OKS BFI LANDFILL ACCORD BUT WITH 18-DAY WINDOW.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council tentatively approved another five-year contract with Sunshine Canyon Landfill on Tuesday, but left open an 18-day window to negotiate a deal with its operator to divert some trash from the Granada Hills dump without paying extra.

Despite the failure of last-ditch efforts to agree on a plan to gradually truck increasing amounts of the city's household trash to remote dumps, Council President Eric Garcetti still held out hope to reach a compromise with Browning-Ferris Industries, which owns the landfill.

Tentative approval of the contract comes after the council promised to wean the city off Sunshine Canyon over five years. Former Mayor James Hahn and current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also pledged to veto the city's contract with the Granada Hills dump.

Villaraigosa has since said he is reluctant to spend millions of dollars more per year to send trash outside city limits, with the city facing tough budget decisions.

The mayor was unavailable for comment on Tuesday's council vote.

If the city and BFI cannot reach a compromise, the council can cancel the Sunshine Canyon contract March 17. However, the city would have to scramble to find new landfills and could be forced to pay $15 million to $30 million more per year when the current contract runs out June 30.

North Valley activists said the City Council essentially sealed the deal with BFI; they said they see little hope that will change in coming days.

``To me, it's a de facto approval,'' said Wayde Hunter with the North Valley Coalition, which has lobbied the city to sever ties with BFI and sign on with companies that promote recycling and landfill alternatives.

``Today, they should have voted up or down on the issue. By doing this, they've allowed two weeks to fool around, and if they don't do anything, the contract stays in place.''

Councilman Alex Padilla, who represents the nearby area and faces a tough state Senate election fight against Assemblywoman Cindy Montaez, cast the only vote against the deal, saying the city was approving the BFI contract before completing negotiations. BFI had set a Feb. 28 deadline for the decision after agreeing to several delays.

``If (BFI) was genuinely willing to talk and meet somewhere in the middle, there wouldn't be this requirement to approve the five-year contract first. I don't think this is good-faith negotiation with the city,'' Padilla said.

But some council members said they were committed to their new trash policy, and will divert 600 tons of trash to other landfills this year.

``I don't think the council is ready to send everything back to Sunshine,'' said Councilman Greig Smith, who represents the community around the dump and has worked to develop alternatives to Sunshine. ``If this contract is a lemon, we walk away from it.''

Still, some council members said they don't want to spend more money to send trash outside city limits, particularly since Sunshine Canyon will continue to take trash from other customers.

The negotiations now come down to cost. Under the current contract with BFI, L.A. must send all its trash to Sunshine Canyon Landfill to lock in the low price of $25 per ton. That works out to $29 million per year.

BFI has said that if L.A. sends some trash to other landfills, the per-ton price could jump to $45. That could raise the annual cost by roughly $14 million each year.

If BFI agrees to renegotiate the contract and allow L.A. to divert trash to landfills in Riverside County or the San Joaquin Valley, the city would pay between $1.2 million and $1.8 million more each year.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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SOURCE: Staff research