WILL L.A. GARBAGE BECOME EXPORT?

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

A tissue tossed in a Van Nuys waste bin could wind up in a dump in the Antelope Valley, Riverside, San Juan Capistrano or even as far away as San Diego or Arizona if Los Angeles officials follow through on a promise they won't use Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills.

Five private companies have submitted bids to truck as many as 4,700 tons of trash generated daily by Los Angeles single-family residences - garbage that come 2006 would be headed to the controversial Granada Hills dump bitterly opposed by nearby residents. The garbage now goes to a portion of Sunshine Canyon farther from homes outside the city limits in an unincorporated area of the county.

The Bureau of Sanitation is reviewing details of the contract proposals, which are likely to ignite debate as officials weigh the higher costs of trucking residential trash long distances against Mayor James Hahn's promise to end Los Angeles' reliance on urban landfills.

``Cost is the main concern for me. It does cost money. It may be significant,'' said City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who last year sought a report on the potential impact of higher trash costs on the general fund, which also finances police and fire department budgets.

The landfill issue promises to play a major role in the 2005 mayoral election, and some Valley activists are closely watching Hahn's actions. The city's current contract for Sunshine Canyon Landfill expires in June 2006, although the city has the option of renewing it for at least five more years.

``The promise was made to the people, and I believe this part of San Fernando Valley holds him to his promise,'' said Wayde Hunter, president of the North Valley Coalition, a vocal landfill opponent. ``I definitely feel he would lose support'' if he doesn't follow through on his promise.

An aide to Hahn said the mayor remains committed to pulling out of Sunshine Canyon, although its operator, Browning Ferris Industries, has won the approval of the city and other agencies to expand into Granada Hills and can take garbage from other communities and private contractors serving apartments and businesses in Los Angeles.

``Whenever you have a landfill in an increasingly populated environment, the two just don't go together,'' Deputy Mayor Brian Williams said, noting Los Angeles landfills are near schools, churches and homes.

But distance dumping is expected to cost more.

And some City Council members are already grumbling about potential trash price hikes and questioning the wisdom of cutting ties with Sunshine Canyon before contracting with anyone else.

Landfills were a hot issue in the 2001 mayoral race, with Hahn and other candidates courting the Valley vowing to fight the expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Granada Hills - a project that Hahn helped expedite when he was city attorney.

Garbage again became a key point in the 2002 Valley secession campaign, fueled by a sense of injustice that the San Fernando Valley is home to the city's only two remaining landfills - Sunshine Canyon and Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley.

During the campaign, Hahn appointed a panel to explore alternatives to urban landfills and reiterated a promise to close them.

During this mayoral campaign, the announced candidates are more cautious.

Former Assembly speaker Bob Hertzberg, a Sherman Oaks resident, said he is still researching the issue and hasn't taken a position on the city's use of Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

But he was critical of Hahn for promising to end the city's contract with BFI without first considering the cost, landfill space elsewhere or the fact that Sunshine Canyon Landfill will continue accepting trash from other sources if the city pulls out.

``I'm concerned with a promise that we're going to shut down a landfill in 2006 when the people that run it have a permit to be open beyond 2006,'' Hertzberg said.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon said he has always opposed the expansion of city landfills, including Sunshine Canyon, but he questioned whether ending the city contract with BFI would provide any environmental benefit to the neighboring community with the landfill still open.

``It sounds like a political position that's not going to make any improvement in the community,'' said Alarcon, D-Van Nuys.

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who lost to Hahn in 2001, said he would be willing to support a proposal to haul garbage outside of Los Angeles in 2006.

``Cost is certainly a factor,'' he said. ``I believe we have to look beyond just cost to find a cost-effective and environmentally sensitive alternative to Sunshine Canyon.''

Councilman Bernard Parks could not be reached for comment.

City leaders will take up the debate in late October, when the proposals go before the Board of Public Works. The Bureau of Sanitation received the bids on July 29 and has refused to release details, although the companies themselves discussed some of the provisions.

In addition to the five proposals, officials also may consider an offer BFI made in May for a long-term, relatively low-cost contract to continue dumping at Sunshine Canyon.

The letter sent to the city said that if the city contracts with another hauler, BFI could immediately hike trash fees by 50 percent or even turn away city garbage trucks from Sunshine Canyon - an assertion rejected by the city attorney and the Bureau of Sanitation.

The city has to make a decision and notify BFI of its plan by June 2005.

The cost of garbage hauling is $92 million a year and paid out of the city's General Fund. Homeowners are billed $11 a month for sanitation equipment.

Apartments and businesses generate an estimated 6,000 tons per day and contract with private haulers for disposal at landfills across the region.

The city pays about $23 per ton to ship garbage trucks straight to Sunshine Canyon, a massive 450-acre dump. Garbage from outside the Valley is dropped at a transfer station downtown, reloaded onto bigger trucks and hauled to the landfill at a total price of about $43 per ton.

City sanitation officials want to end direct haul to landfills. Instead, they want garbage trucks to dump their loads at regional transfer stations, where the trash would be consolidated on big-rig trucks.

While city leaders have warned that getting out of Sunshine could increase trash costs because of the extra mileage traveled and transfer station expense, the question is by how much.

BFI figures the city could spend upward of $170 million to haul outside city limits.

``With a truck, anytime you haul long distances you have more traffic and more air pollution,'' BFI District Manager Greg Loughnane said.

Other trash haulers who submitted proposals to the city agreed.

``I think no matter who is going to be bidding on it, the price for transfer and disposal will be considerably more than we're paying at Sunshine Canyon Landfill,'' said John Richardson, vice president of Community Recycling and Resource Recovery, which proposed consolidating city trash at its Sun Valley transfer station.

But other trash companies say remote landfills don't have to cost more.

Bernard Huberman with BLT Enterprises in Oxnard said his company hauls trash from Sacramento residents to a landfill in Reno rather than using the local landfill for a savings of $1 million a year.

In its proposal to Los Angeles, BLT has offered a similar system for 10 potential landfills throughout Southern California, and even as far away as Arizona.

Even if the economics pencil out, the politics of shipping trash to other locales may hinder Los Angeles' plans.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, for instance, opposes the prospect of Los Angeles trash going to that city's landfill, which rises in terraces beside a brush-covered ridge overlooking the new 5,200-home Anaverde master-planned community.

``Why ever have a landfill if you're going to assume the responsibility for the entire L.A. basin? I don't know why a host community would feel good about that prospect,'' Ledford said.

If Los Angeles trash is hauled in, he said, ``you're going to fill it pretty darn quick. It adds congestion to the roads. It impacts air quality.''

But Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts said he is confident Waste Management would protect the Antelope Valley environment and local residents if it hauls Los Angeles' trash to its Lancaster landfill. But he acknowledged that dumping Los Angeles trash in the Lancaster landfill - which is a mound rising out of the desert just outside city limits and thus outside the city's authority - is likely to prove unpopular with Antelope Valley residents.

``The feeling of the valley will be: not in my back yard.''

Staff Writer Charles F. Bostwick contributed to this report.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

DOWN-AND-DIRTY TRASH HAULING OFFERS

The Bureau of Sanitation is reviewing proposals from five companies for hauling Los Angeles' residential trash outside the city limits, beginning in 2006. City officials have refused to release the bids, but the companies provided some of the details of their proposals:

--BLT Enterprises: The Oxnard-based company would build a transfer station in the San Fernando Valley and use an existing transfer station downtown to haul trash to as many as 10 different landfills, perhaps as far as San Diego County or Arizona. BLT also proposes using alternative technologies, such as creating gas from trash.

--Burrtec Waste Industries: Fontana-based company would truck trash to landfills in Brea and San Juan Capistrano.

--Community Recycling and Resource Recovery: Sun Valley company would likely handle trash only from the San Fernando Valley, collecting trash at its existing transfer station before hauling it to a remote landfill.

--Southern California Disposal Co.: Santa Monica company would likely handle trash only from the Westside, collecting it at its existing Santa Monica transfer station before hauling it to a remote landfill.

--Waste Management Inc.: One of the largest trash companies in the nation would collect city trash at an existing transfer station in Carson and a proposed transfer station at Bradley Landfill and would haul garbage to Antelope Valley Landfill in Palmdale, Lancaster Landfill and El Sobrante Landfill in Corona.

CAPTION(S):

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DOWN-AND-DIRTY TRASH HAULING OFFERS (see text)

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WASTE HANDLING PROPOSALS

SOURCE: Daily News research and interviews with trash companies