LANDFILLS OUTSIDE CITY SOUGHT TO TAKE TRASH PROSPECTS BAD AS DUMP CAPACITY IS LIMITED.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Still trying to fulfill Mayor James Hahn's promise to get city trash out of Sunshine Canyon Landfill in 2006, the Bureau of Sanitation will seek a second round of proposals from dumps outside the city limits.

The city is shopping for landfills to handle roughly 3,300 tons of trash it collects from single-family homes each day - but industry experts said landfill space is becoming increasingly limited and Los Angeles County already ships 7,300 tons of trash out of the county each day.

The city's request for proposals last year only elicited two serious bids - one from Waste Management Inc. that would truck trash to landfills in Simi Valley, the Antelope Valley and Riverside and one from Browning Ferris Industries that would continue to send trash to Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills.

Both proposals included plans to eventually use rail lines to ship trash to remote desert landfills toward the end of the decade.

Sanitation Assistant Chief Enrique Zaldivar said he's putting out another request this month because the city recently bought a $60 million transfer station downtown.

``We don't expect anything new in terms of landfills. Really the only ones that have them now are BFI with Sunshine (Canyon) and Waste Management owns three landfills,'' Zaldivar said. It will be a question of moving the trash from the transfer station to the new dumps.

The city-owned transfer station could handle up to 4,000 tons of trash per day and change the equation for waste haulers who generally find it more profitable to use their own transfer stations, where recyclables are sorted from trash, and their own dumps.

Waste Management officials, who submitted a proposal last round, said they would wait and see the request.

``There are a number of factors that could impact our response, including the downtown transfer station,'' said Kit Cole, community relations manager for the company.

BFI District Manager Greg Loughnane said with or without the transfer station, the city is going to have a hard time finding a replacement for Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

``There's a reason 7,000 tons a day are going outside the county now,'' he said. ``There isn't a lot of capacity out there.''

The city generates about 11,000 tons of trash a day from single-family home, apartments and businesses, according to the county. Mayor Hahn has pledged to close all landfills within the city limits. However, Sunshine has been approved to expand into Granada Hills and Bradley Landfill wants to expand in Sun Valley.

Deputy Mayor Brian Williams said it will be difficult to find new landfill space, but the city will do it and try to reduce trash disposal through recycling and developing alternative technologies to landfills.

Said Williams of the 2006 withdrawal from Sunshine Canyon: ``It's a firm deadline. It's not optional for us.''

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com