TRASH MOUNTAIN LANDFILL NEIGHBORS STEAMED.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

A year ago, the East Valley Coalition was a loose-knit group of retirees, teachers and gadflies, quietly worrying about the landfills and other industrial eyesores that crowd Sun Valley.

Today the coalition has evolved into an organized, outspoken group of activists whose phone calls, letters and e-mails opposing expansion of the Bradley Landfill have captured the attention and won the support of the mayor, City Council members and state lawmakers.

``They're listening to us,'' said the coalition president, Carol Ann Ziehler. ``In many ways, they're a little surprised by what we've been able to accomplish.''

The Northeast San Fernando Valley has several community-improvement organizations that have expressed concerns about the many current and closed garbage dumps in the area - more than two dozen. But the East Valley Coalition is the only group that has made closing Bradley Landfill its primary mission.

The group's major battle is to derail a proposal now before city officials to increase Bradley's capacity by 10 percent and raise its height an additional 43 feet.

The coalition is also fighting revisions to Bradley's operating permit. The landfill operator, Waste Management Inc., wants to increase the dump's capacity on that permit, change the allowed height from 1,000 to 1,010 feet and push the estimated closure date to 2007. The California Integrated Waste Management Board will vote on the permit Wednesday.

``The community seems to be organizing itself and becoming more of a force in terms of Bradley and other issues,'' said Michael Paparian, a member of the waste board. ``That there is controversy around the facility is very clear.''

The coalition members also have rallied politicians to their cause.

Responding to community concerns, State Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, persuaded the waste board to sponsor a hearing last month in Sun Valley, where the East Valley Coalition presented its list of air, water and other quality-of-life concerns.

City Council President Alex Padilla has sent a representative to the group's meetings, and Mayor James Hahn held a news conference last year to announce his opposition to the landfill expansion.

Hahn also sent city representatives to daylong meetings with coalition members and state regulators as they pored over decades of Bradley Landfill environmental studies and inspection reports.

Ziehler and coalition member Ellen Mackey have sifted through Bradley paperwork dating back to the 1950s in search of evidence of violations and unauthorized landfill increases. They have spent hours touring the site and peppering Waste Management District Manager Doug Corcoran with questions.

``It's been challenging working with them,'' Corcoran said. ``The East Valley Coalition seems to be focused, maybe fixated, on Bradley.''

Corcoran has said Bradley is bearing the brunt of community residents' angst over heavy industry in the neighborhood. Besides landfills, the area has gravel pits, concrete manufacturers and more than 100 auto-dismantling yards.

Padilla, who represents the area, sees the group as providing political activism not traditionally seen in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

``You wouldn't have seen this type of action five, six years ago,'' said Padilla spokesman David Gershwin. ``Then the community bore the brunt of haphazard zoning and a threat to residential areas.

``What you see now is them organizing and working with elected officials to stand up to large corporations. As a result, the entire area is becoming more politically aware.''

Hahn also considers the East Valley group important.

``The mayor was working with individual citizens in the community before they formed this coalition when Waste Management announced it wanted to expand,'' said James Burkhardt, North Valley coordinator for Hahn.

``There was overwhelming community opposition, and they formed this coalition and have proven themselves highly effective in representing the people of the area.''

A test of the East Valley Coalition's clout will come Wednesday, when the California Integrated Waste Management Board meets in Sacramento to consider Waste Management Inc.'s proposed permit revision for Bradley.

Waste Management Inc. officials maintain the revisions are simply clerical - needed to correct errors in past paperwork.

But waste board officials say the changes are needed to correct violations that occurred at Bradley when the operators revamped the landfill's layout without getting a new permit, as state officials deemed necessary.

The waste board can specifically approve the revised permit, send it back to city government for changes or, in what would effectively be approval, take no action.

``At this point, we feel we are attracting a little more notice, but in order to make elected officials really, really take notice, we're going to have to do battle with Waste Management (Inc.),'' coalition member Maria Sesma Sooy said.

Staff Writer Rick Orlov contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Opponents to Bradley Landfill expansion include, from left, Cynthia Despres, Mary Benson, Lee Piro and Jerry Piro.

(2) Bradley Landfill has risen to a height that dwarfs the rooftop of a house in the foreground. Area residents in the East Valley Coalition want the landfill closed and adamantly oppose further expansion.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer