LANDFILL EXPANSION PLAN UNDER FIRE; RESIDENTS FEAR CONTAMINATION OF L.A. RESERVOIR.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

A proposal to expand the Sunshine Canyon Landfill again is drawing fire two weeks before a public hearing on the project.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson and area residents fear that trash dumped into the proposed 194-acre addition could contaminate the L.A. reservoir nearby. They plan to take their complaints to an Oct. 29 hearing in Granada Hills.

``What they're putting in is obnoxious,'' said Sylmar resident Henry Pardo, who lives close by. ``That reservoir is going to be contaminated.''

A spokesman for the company that operates the landfill said the project contains safeguards against tainting the reservoir. And he said the proposed location - adjacent to and in some places overlapping a closed portion of the landfill - is more practical than pushing into undeveloped land.

``It makes sense to expand onto property that's already been a landfill for 40 years,'' said Arnie Berghoff, spokesman for Browning-Ferris Industries.

As proposed, the new expansion could handle 5,000 tons of household trash each day, with hazardous materials - such as sewage sludge, medical waste and toxic chemicals - excluded from the landfill. Browning-Ferris would also build scales, administrative offices and maintenance buildings at the site, located west of the Golden State Freeway and northwest of Balboa Boulevard.

In all, the expansion could hold 55 million tons of trash before closing.

Browning-Ferris started operating an earlier approved expansion of Sunshine Canyon on Los Angeles County-administered land two years ago. But that corner of the facility will fill up in eight to 10 years, Berghoff said.

Greig Smith, chief deputy for Bernson, said the councilman's biggest concern is that the high winds that rake that corner of the San Fernando Valley could carry some of the trash straight into the city's drinking water. Gusts blasting into the Valley from the desert often range between 30 and 50 mph, he said, and the reservoir lies downwind.

Berghoff said the fill would have both a barrier beneath it to trap fluids, and a pumping system to remove and treat them.

He also said the danger of garbage flying off the property is minimal. The company uses wire mesh screens to catch errant trash on breezy days, and stops landfill operations during heavy winds.

``If the winds reach a certain level, we shut down,'' Berghoff said.

The project requires the approval of the city's Planning Commission and City Council. The first step in the process will be a public hearing Oct. 29 from 4 to 9 p.m. at John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills. An officer from the city's Planning Department will take comments from the public before making a recommendation on the project to the Planning Commission.

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Map: Proposed Sunshine Canyon Landfill expansion