JUDGE LIFTS BARRIER TO LANDFILL REOPENING.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

A Los Angeles judge lifted a temporary order Friday that blocked garbage truck access to Sunshine Canyon Landfill, clearing what may be the final hurdle to reopening the dump after years of litigation and legal maneuvering.

In lifting the stay she imposed May 6, Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne ruled that the Los Angeles City Council acted in accordance with city planning and zoning laws when it approved a settlement allowing garbage trucks access to the landfill.

Officials with Browning-Ferris Industries Inc., the landfill's owner, were pleased with the decision, saying it should allow them to open the Granada Hills-area landfill by mid-July.

``This was the last major deal we were facing in court,'' said Arnold Berghoff, a company spokesman.

The North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens, one of the groups fighting to keep Sunshine Canyon closed, intends to appeal Friday's court decision, said spokeswoman Mary Edwards.

She and other Sunshine Canyon opponents have argued that operation of the dump before its previous permit expired in 1991 exposed nearby communities to severe air pollution, dust, foul odors and wind-blown trash.

They also have raised concerns that a large earthquake could cause contamination of a water supply tunnel that runs within 500 feet of the landfill.

``These landfills do not belong near communities and near the water supply. They should not be in anybody's back yard,'' Edwards said. ``We advocate it going to long-haul sites away from people and away from aquifers.''

The judge imposed the stay blocking garbage trucks from entering the landfill while she considered a suit filed by the North Valley Coalition and four other neighborhood and environmental groups.

The opponents challenged a city settlement with BFI over whether the company needed special zoning permission to use an access road leading to the landfill expansion.

The road is within city limits, across the site of the original landfill, but the new site is just north of the city line.

In her order, Wayne said, ``The city may not be prevented from settling litigation when, as here, the settlement is consistent with planning and zoning laws and ordinances.'' Wayne did scold Los Angeles city officials for refusing to allow dump opponents to copy the grading plans for the landfill, saying the city wrongly claimed that a 1959 court case allowed the documents to be withheld as ``proprietary,'' as are architectural plans.

But Wayne cited the state's Open Records Act in ruling that the documents should be open to public inspection.

The landfill's opponents have fought the project for years, since well before the original site closed after a conditional use permit expired in 1991.

Tony Alcala, an environmental activist in nearby Sun Valley, said he's worried about health effects that may not show up in residents for 20 or 30 years.

``We have to breathe all that pollution, and nobody can assure me this is not going to have catastrophic effects on the community.''

Edwards' group was criticized recently for receiving $60,000 in assistance from a company seeking to build just such a ``long-haul'' landfill in the San Bernardino County desert.

The money financed a study saying Sunshine Canyon's impermeable liner would rupture, spilling toxic leachate into nearby drinking-water supplies, if another quake hit the area.

The coalition's attorney, Rosemary Woodlock, said Wayne's decision ignores decades of city zoning practices on the landfill site.

``We've said it's wrong for the city to make a zoning decision behind closed doors,'' Woodlock said. ``For 39 years, the city has said you have to have a variance or zoning change to have that road and after the settlement, the city said, `Oh, no problem, go ahead.' ''

Councilman Hal Bernson, who has fought efforts to expand the dump, said the ruling was unfortunate.

``Obviously, I'm disappointed'' on behalf of the North Valley, Bernson said. ``Once again, we are being taken advantage of.''