POLLUTANTS ADD TO LANDFILL CONCERNS : GROUPS OF RESIDENTS, LAWMAKERS WANT BROADER STUDY BEFORE PARK SERVICE DECIDES ON CALABASAS PERMIT.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Public concern over pollutants that have spread beyond the Calabasas Landfill has surfaced as the National Park Service considers issuing a permit the 36-year-old dump needs to continue operating.

Elected state representatives and state park officials joined area residents this week to call for a broader environmental review. The Park Service so far has completed a study proposing that the landfill continue taking as much as 3,500 tons of nonhazardous municipal trash daily through 2018.

What concerns critics of the study is a finding that pollutants, including possible toxic contaminants, have been detected in monitoring wells beyond three of six concrete and clay barriers placed underground in ravines and canyons in the mid-1980s.

The initial study states that the nature and extent of the pollutants is being monitored by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. But that is not enough for Janice Lee, a Malibu Canyon resident who fears hazardous wastes dumped between 1965 and 1980 are not adequately controlled on the landfill site.

``We're not calling for a shutdown of the landfill,'' Lee said. ``But at this juncture, what we're asking for is immediate focus on a disclosed failure of these barriers at the landfill.''

Joining in the call for a full Environmental Impact Statement rather than the Environmental Assessment completed so far are state Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, D-Encino, who represent the area.

``The major concern is that this was a (hazardous waste) dump site,'' Kuehl said. ``It requires more testing for problems in terms of how the contaminants are traveling into the groundwater.''

Although the landfill is permitted to operate until it reaches its current allowed capacity over the next two decades, the National Park Service must issue a permit under a federal law that took effect in 1995. The law bars the Park Service from allowing new landfills within its boundaries and mandates oversight of existing landfills.

``The issues that we've identified have to do with removal of non-native vegetation, loss of habitat through expansion, visual intrusions, protection of archeological or fossil resources,'' explained Art Eck the recreation area's superintendent. ``Our function here is not to supercede or duplicate other permits.''

The Environmental Assessment projects ``a negligible impact on surface water and off-site sediments, and a minor adverse impact on groundwater.''

In response to the stirring of public opposition, however, Eck said the comment period on the study has been extended a second time. The Park Service will take comments through Wednesday.

Comments can be submitted to the Park Service office: 30401 Agoura Road, Suite 100, Agoura Hills, CA 91301. Comments also can be made on the Internet at http//www.nps.gov/planning/samo/cala/.

The final decision will be made by officials at the Pacific region office in San Francisco.

Opened in 1961, it accepted hazardous wastes between 1965 and 1980. The county Board of Supervisors voted to close the landfill to further toxic dumping, officials said.

Groundwater monitoring has detected, in particular, volatile organic compounds beyond three of the six underground barriers. The likely source of these pollutants is landfill gas, the Environmental Assessment states.

``In light of the fact that there may be toxics migrating, we think it should be looked at,'' said Neil Braunstein, the state Department of Parks and Recreation planner for the region.

State and federal parks officials are primarily concerned because the landfill is above the Malibu Creek watershed that drains creeks and feeds Malibu Lagoon on the coast.

``We are concerned that migration of pollutants from the landfill will cause significant adverse impacts on the water quality and biological resources of the lagoon and watershed,'' Braunstein said.