SUNNY DAY FOR LANDFILL NEIGHBORS: INSPECTOR TO BE RETAINED.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Los Angeles County officials reversed themselves Wednesday and decided against relaxing monitoring and oversight at Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills.

Jubilant North Valley residents said the county's decision not to eliminate the on-site inspector coupled with efforts to adopt a similar program when expansion begins into Los Angeles city limits relieved a major concern.

``I'm excited, this is excellent for the community,'' said Kim Thompson, who lives near the landfill. ``It's exactly what we wanted. It's great news.''

County officials confirmed the change, but declined to elaborate.

``The county has reconsidered its position on its recommendation that the full-time inspector be removed from the conditional use permit,'' said Richard Hanson, chief of the solid waste management program in the county's Department of Health Services.

The Daily News reported Monday that a draft county document, recommended to become part of a wider regulatory package, would have eliminated the current on-site daily inspector who costs operator Browning Ferris Industries of California about $100,000 a year.

County officials said at the time they were recommending the elimination of the inspector position because the rest of the dumps in the county are monitored on an as-needed basis.

Neighbors said they had been betrayed, citing more than two dozen violations at the dump last year.

``We had fought so hard for the inspector on the county side,'' said Mary Edwards, spokeswoman for the North Valley Coalition. ``We just assumed there would continue to be a monitor.''

BFI spokesman Arnie Berghoff said the company never lobbied for the change.

``We liked the inspector,'' Berghoff said.

City Attorney James Hahn, meanwhile, asked the city's Department of Environmental Affairs, which is negotiating terms of the expanded county-city landfill, to adopt the daily inspector requirement.

``The large scope of the landfill, the unique windswept location and a record of questionable compliance by the operator all suggest that the more protective requirement of an on-site monitor must be adopted,'' Hahn wrote to Detrich Allen, general manager of the environmental affairs department.

Allen said she is evaluating the request from Hahn, and a similar motion by council members.

The City Council never required a daily inspector at the landfill when it approved the 415-acre, 90 million-ton expansion Dec. 8, 1999.

The City Attorney's Office will continue to press the city to adopt the inspection requirement, said Doane Liu, director of community services in the office.

``In the merging of the documents, we want no excuses from the county,'' Liu said. ``You're requiring it, and the city is requiring it as well.''

In the council motion by Mike Feuer and Hal Bernson, the councilmen proposed creation of a full-time inspector's position, which would be filled if the county were to eliminate its daily inspector at Sunshine.

``We owe it to residents to protect them at every step,'' Feuer said.