EDITORIAL TALKING TRASH COUNTY SUPERVISORS NEED TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT LANDFILL POLICY.

MEMBERS of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agree: Swift action must be taken to deal with the region's trash situation, and for that we need - drum roll, please - a study!

Not, mind you, a study that would actually deal with the issue of how the Southland should dispose of its waste. Oh, no, county leaders have dodged that tricky matter for years, and they will gladly continue to do so for as long as they can.

No, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich - who has neglected the problem longer than anyone while inflicting mountains of garbage on constituents in the San Fernando Valley - has led his colleagues into calling for a report about the narrow question of (yawn) how much of the city of Los Angeles' trash is shipped out to the Antelope Valley each year.

Why is this important?

The city of Los Angeles dumps almost all of its trash in Sunshine Canyon in Granada Hills - thanks, in no small part, to the supervisors, who, along with the Los Angeles City Council, have continually conspired to open, close and re-open this public-health monstrosity that abuts a residential neighborhood and elementary school. Someday, it will be known as the landfill that ate Granada Hills.

Almost none of the city's garbage goes to the Antelope Valley, except for those rare occasions when weather precludes trash trucks from accessing Sunshine Canyon. Only an estimated 1,000 of the 1 million tons of trash L.A. produces each year goes to Lancaster Landfill.

But the supervisors, led by Antonovich, their gerrymandered potentate, are trying to send a message.

It's campaign season for L.A. Mayor James Hahn, which means he's once again talking about no longer dumping waste in residential neighborhoods. That has Antonovich worried that the Antelope Valley might become the city's new dumping grounds. Quibbling over the minuscule amount of trash the city currently sends in that direction is is the supes' way of firing a warning shot - don't even think about sending any more.

But warning shots and territorial squabbling are no substitute for leadership. Politicians at the city, county and regional levels must start crafting real policies on landfills, recycling, and trash-to-energy programs.

L.A. must find ways to meet its trash-removal needs without turning our neighborhoods into dumps.