Neighbors raise stink over Elsmere landfill designed to help Los Angeles garbage woes.

Neighbors raise stink over Elsmere landfill designed to help Los Angeles garbage woes

Santa Clarita residents are raising a stink about Los Angeles government plans to open a fourth -- and largest yet -- dump in their backyard.

"This landfill is in a populated area," said Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jill Klajic, who co-formed the Elsmere Preservation Commission to oppose the landfill a year ago. "It poses an immediate danger to our health."

In February, the Santa Clarita City Council unanimously voted to approve a resolution which declared the city's "unconditional opposition" to the proposed dump, which would be located about a mile from the sprawling city's boundary and two miles from Newhall, the nearest population center.

Los Angeles city and county authorities have formed a joint waste authority to develop and operate the dump, which is urgently needed because of the little space remaining in the county's 10 dumps.

The project is being coordinated by Elsmere Corp., a subsidiary of BKK Corp., a Torrance-based waste disposal and transportation company. BKK and Elsmere Corp. president Ken Kazarian said that opponents of the project, which is planned to occupy 200 acres and have a capacity of 190 million tons, are unfairly dumping on landfills in general.

"They are using the generic arguments used against any waste disposal plant," he said. "They have chosen to make a lot of wild generalized statements without any facts in hand."

Specifically, Klajic charged that the project would threaten the aquifer which supplies 50 percent of the city's water. She notes that levels of two chemicals found in the ground water in wells under the nearby Chiquita Canyon Landfill were in excess of levels permitted by the state, though levels of the two chemicals, common in landfills, have recently been recorded below the limit.

Kazarian said that any possible danger to the Santa Clarita's water supply will be discovered by an environmental impact report and an environmental impact statement to be produced through the coordinated efforts of Los Angeles County and the United States Forest Service.

Kazarian also noted that the site had been selected from over 100 by the county Sanitation District and Public Works Department as one of the six best locations in the county for a landfill.

While the dump will not contain any hazardous materials, the simple concentration of degrading common materials can yield toxic compounds, opponents claimed. Another fear is that the project would overwhelm the transportation system surrounding the city with garbage trucks delivering endless streams of waste.

Kazarian said that the impact of the 1,000 to 1,200 projected truck trips per day to the dump would be mitigated by off ramps on the Antelope Freeway which will allow the trucks to bypass the city and by the site's proposed 24-hour operations. "Customers can come off-peak hours," he said.

In addition to a positive county environmental impact report, the project would need permits from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the California Integrated Waste Management Board and the United States Forest Service.

In order to finalize the deal for the landfill, BKK would exchange alternate forest land with the National Forest Service for the site, at which point the county and city joint authority would buy the property from BKK and assume control of the project.

For BKK, millions of dollars are at stake. "We've invested several million dollars in research to the project," Kazarian said. "And we will invest $10 million more into the project before any permits are issued."

Klajic said that Santa Clarita will likely conduct its own environmental impact report, lobby the forest service not to make the land swap and try to persuade Los Angeles city and county to build the dump in an alternative site or speed development of a rail system to cart junk out of the county altogether.

Such a system is in the works: the county is currently working on a request for proposal for a rail system. "The problem is not technical," said Don Nellor, head of solid waste planning for the sanitation district of Los Angeles County. "It's a question of politics and cost."

Nellor said that the cost of a "rail-haul" waste disposal system would be 50 percent a homeowner more than that of a new landfill in 1995, the soonest date by which the rail system could be operational.

Nellor also pointed to examples of large dumps far closer to cities than Elsmere would be to Santa Clarita which have caused no problems, such as the Puente Hills Landfill in the city of Los Angeles. It is within 1,000 feet of a residential neighborhood.

Klajic said that while Santa Clarita residents originally were pessimistic about the likelihood of overcoming the will of powerful Los Angeles authorities on the issue, they are now spoiling for a fight. "There are some very militant people in the valley and I wouldn't put anything past them," she noted.

PHOTO : Dump: Los Angeles officials form joint waste disposal authority