OFFICIALS DISCUSS EL NINO PREPARATIONS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Preparations for this winter's expected El Nino storms, along with concerns over proposed landfills, were discussed during a meeting this week between city leaders and county Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Antonovich, whose 5th District includes the Santa Clarita Valley, promised that county government will work with city personnel to prepare the area to withstand the heavy rainfall that the National Weather Service has predicted for winter and spring.

Some forecasters say that Southern California could be drenched by 250 percent of normal precipitation.

Average rainfall in Los Angeles, for which the Weather Service keeps annual records, is 14.77 inches per year, National Weather Service meteorologist Vladimir Ryshko said.

During the El Nino-influenced season from July 1982 through June 1983 - the wettest in recent years - more than 31 inches of rain fell in Los Angeles, he said.

``The El Nino is coming, and being prepared is so important,'' Antonovich said at a breakfast meeting at City Hall.

The 1982-83 storms came after some serious brush fires had denuded vast acreage and thus increased flooding potential, City Councilwoman Jan Heidt said. She said it helped that community residents filled sandbags before the worst downpour.

This time around, she asked that the county's storm preparations include checking the stability of bridges in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In a motion passed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Antonovich directed the county's Fire Department, Sheriff's Department and Public Works Department to report on their readiness for a record storm, including efforts to minimize hillside erosion and clean storm drains, flood control channels, gutters and catch basins.

``It's kind of like doing brush clearance before fire season,'' Antonovich aide Dave Vannatta told the gathering. Added Mayor Clyde Smyth later: ``We didn't know the earthquake was going to happen (but) this is an issue of planning for something that we're pretty sure is going to come.''

Extensive commercial and residential development in the past 15 years means more rain water will flow down hillsides and storm channels, rather than soak into open land, Smyth said.

``We know that, with the development up here, the topography has changed,'' Smyth said.

Recent brush fires have burned vegetation that lends stability to hillsides and stems runoff.

Also during the meeting, City Councilwoman Jill Klajic asked Antonovich about the status of Elsmere Canyon as a potential site for a county landfill.

There has been ``speculation and rumor,'' Antonovich said, that if the county expands Sunshine Canyon Landfill north of Granada Hills, then Browning-Ferris Industries would drop its plans to create a dump in Elsmere Canyon.

``As far as we're concerned, it's a dead application,'' Antonovich said. ``You have to find new ways of dealing with solid waste, and Elsmere is not appropriate,'' he added.

Antonovich was successful in removing nearby Towsley Canyon from the county's list of proposed landfill sites, but Elsmere remains a contender.