Dumps Los Angeles County

If Los Angeles County gets its way, it could soon be sending a new export south to Orange County: Trash. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County supervisors unanimously supported a plan to allow county officials to begin negotiating with their Orange County counterparts in order to get a long-term deal to ship Los Angeles garbage south of the county line. One benefit would be to reduce the need for dumps in Los Angeles County--especially the controversial Elsmere Canyon Landfill near Santa Clarita.

As planners envision it, a proposed golf course in Rolling Hills Estates will have the usual hazards, such as bunkers and tall rough. But it will also have more than 10 miles of methane gas-collecting pipes. Such are the demands of topping the long-closed Palos Verdes Landfill with a 110-acre golf course. Operated from May 1957 through December 1980, the Palos Verdes Landfill rises more than 100 feet above surrounding properties and roadways.

Eleven more years of trucks. Eleven more years of trash. And 11 more years of cash. Operators of the BKK landfill are vowing to keep the West Covina dump open as late as 2006--11 years after the city is counting on it shutting down. Although the landfill provides the cash-strapped city with millions of dollars a year in revenue, it is fiercely opposed by residents who live nearby.

Citing concerns over environmental compliance at the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, two Valley politicians proposed Wednesday that the city hire a monitor to oversee the dump. Los Angeles City Councilmen Mike Feuer and Hal Bernson, whose North Valley district includes the landfill, introduced a motion suggesting that landfill operator Browning-Ferris Industries pay for the monitor.

In a landmark agreement that advances efforts to clean up one of the nation's worst hazardous waste dumps, 14 Los Angeles County cities and a host of waste haulers and other public agencies agreed Thursday to pay more than $63 million to clean up the landfill in Monterey Park. The agreement, announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S.

City officials are considering selling the Savage Canyon Landfill because its small size makes it expensive to operate. While Savage Canyon can accept up to 350 tons of trash a day, the nearby regional Puente Hills Landfill averages 12,000 tons per day. Confidential negotiations between Whittier and the Los Angeles County Sanitation District have upset some residents, but city officials say public hearings will be held before any sale.

Plans to bury sewage sludge that Los Angeles cannot burn because of failures in a $350-million co-generation plant ran into political trouble Tuesday, raising the possibility that Mayor Tom Bradley and other officials may be forced to violate federal orders and dump sludge in the ocean. The biggest obstacle to arise Tuesday was county Supervisor Pete Schabarum, an old nemesis of the city who objects to any Los Angeles waste coming to a final resting place in his San Gabriel Valley district.

The saga continues. When we last left the former cruise ship Princess Louise, the ill-fated vessel was lying 900 feet deep in the outer San Pedro Channel, where it sank en route to its intended resting place off the coast of Santa Catalina Island. The sinking of the 330-foot liner was to have ended its final sorry days--bankrupt as a business, no longer seaworthy, capsizing in a Terminal Island shipyard, even plundered by rogue divers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set an end-of-month deadline for owners of 10 San Fernando Valley industrial and landfill sites to make settlement offers or face a federal lawsuit to recover $16.8 million in ground-water decontamination costs under the Superfund toxic cleanup program.

The county's planning agency Wednesday gave final approval to plans to keep the Puente Hills Landfill open for 10 more years, allowing it to expand eastward through canyons near Hacienda Heights homes. The Regional Planning Commission renewed the operating permit for the landfill. It had been scheduled to shut down in November, leaving 60 cities without a place to dispose of trash. Homeowners opposed to the expansion have vowed to appeal the decision to the County Board of Supervisors.

Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn on Friday asked the city's Planning Director to hold a meeting to review recent violations at Sunshine Canyon Landfill. The dump currently operates only on county property, although it plans to expand onto city land in Granada Hills. It is Hahn's second recent action on Sunshine Canyon. Last month, Hahn, who is running for mayor, called for a new working group of environmental regulatory agencies.

The sodden diapers and moldy bread of Rancho Cucamonga are a long way from home. When garbage from this San Bernardino County suburb finally sinks into a landfill, it's at a dump about 25 miles away in Orange County. In Los Angeles County, meanwhile, one of the biggest landfills in Southern California takes in trash from dozens of surrounding cities--except for L.A., whose residential refuse has long been banned from the gargantuan Puente Hills Landfill near Whittier.

Los Angeles City Council travels may delay action on two controversial issues--expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill and a new ordinance restricting street banners. The landfill issue is on Tuesday's agenda for a final vote, but City Councilwomen Ruth Galanter and Rita Walters, who were part of the majority in a 9-5 initial vote supporting the expansion, are out of the country and will not be present Tuesday. Galanter is traveling on city airport business to Hong Kong and Australia.

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro ordered an updated analysis of the costs of dumping the city's trash Tuesday, but rejected efforts to delay a final vote on a controversial proposal to expand a landfill in Granada Hills for more than a week. After a sharp exchange of words with Councilman Joel Wachs, a landfill opponent, Ferraro's order headed off, at least temporarily, demands by Wachs and others for a longer delay. The council favored the landfill on a 9-5 vote on Oct.

Opponents of the expansion of the Sunshine Canyon into Granada Hills will get a few more days to lobby the Los Angeles City Council, after the city attorney's office issued a ruling Monday that will likely require two more votes to enact the measure. City lawyers said the council's 9-5 vote last week to approve the expansion made so many changes in the zoning ordinance that a new first reading will be required today.

In an auditorium packed with up to 500 parents, Grant High School officials pledged Monday to combat violence and teach tolerance to defuse racial animosities that exploded here last week between Armenian and Latino students. Principal Joe Walker apologized to parents, telling them he would beef up security with a "zero tolerance" policy for student violence.

Spring Canyon is undergoing a spring-cleaning this week and next. Since Monday, the California Environment Project and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps have been working to clear a two-mile stretch of the lower part of the ravine north of Valley Canyon Road in Canyon Country, said Scott Mathes, CEP executive director. The dried-up creek bed has been choked with junk and debris over the years as people converted Spring Canyon into an illegal dumping site.

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday approved a master plan by American Golf Corp. of Santa Monica to build an 18-hole executive golf course on top of the Scholl Canyon Landfill. The original nine-hole course was closed four years ago because of methane leaking from the landfill and constant shifting of the greens due to the decomposition of the material below. A new system has been installed to collect methane.

Teachers, counselors and former students at Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley gave emotional testimony Monday about cancer among colleagues that the speakers blame, at least in part, on toxic gases from a now-closed landfill across from the campus. Several school administrators told the state Senate Natural Resources Committee that they have counted 38 cases of cancer among past and current faculty.

Teachers, counselors and former students at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley gave emotional testimony Monday about current and former colleagues who have cancer that the witnesses suspect was caused, at least in part, by toxic gases from a now-closed landfill across the street from the campus.