EDITORIAL SUNSHINE GRAVEYARD.

WE thought Halloween had ended in October.

The City Council apparently had another idea.

A full month after getting their yearly fill of ghosts, ghouls and goblins, Angelenos have been shocked with yet another horror story.

This tale emanates from the Sunshine Canyon Landfill - the Granada Hills wasteland turned intellectual cemetery, where the City Council buried the remains of its common sense.

When the council voted to reopen the city's portion of the landfill last year, it promised a clean, safe dump that would make refuse removal cheap and easy for the city of Los Angeles.

That was the treat.

The trick soon followed.

Now it turns out that, beyond bringing in fleets of exhaust-spewing dump trucks into the area, beyond emitting toxic gases, Sunshine Canyon has further sullied the community by burying medical waste - including human body parts - that may not have been properly sterilized.

The 11 truckloads of medical waste could contain all kinds of environmental and health hazards - like pathogen-contaminated human remains or dirty syringes.

Browning-Ferris Industries, which operates the landfill, assures the public that it has since tightened its waste-dumping standards. It vows that there's nothing to worry about.

We've heard that before. BFI said the same thing after it was busted for emitting toxic fumes.

And don't worry, be happy was the council's mantra back when it sold the public on the promise of a tidy dumping grounds in the first place.

There seems to be a pattern here: Pollute, get caught, promise it won't happen again, return to step one.

It's getting old, and the public's patience is wearing thin.

Now that we know where the body parts are buried, what Sunshine outrage can Angelenos expect next?

It's clear that Sunshine Canyon lacks the standards or safeguards to serve the community responsibly.

It's only a question of when the landfill will next violate the public's trust - or when responsible city leaders will step in and put an end to the horror show.

Mayoral candidates James Hahn, Antonio Villaraigosa and Joel Wachs have all demanded some sort of immediate action. All three are headed in the right direction.

The city needs to stop burying medical waste at Sunshine Canyon and bury its ill-conceived landfill-expansion plans instead.