Puente Hills Landfill

Hein Lam of Arcadia picked the wrong day to clean out his garage and take a load of three old computers to the Puente Hills landfill near Whittier. As he unloaded trash bags from his minivan, Lam was greeted by a team of state investigators, which promptly issued him a citation for illegal disposal of hazardous waste.

I'M running late. Adan Ortega Jr. and his three punctual friends -- Leo, Randall and Ron -- are waiting at the foot of the Puente Hills with their Leki hiking sticks when I pull into the trail head parking lot at the crack of dawn with no poles in my hand or caffeine in my head. But what am I really lacking? Faith -- that a long hike near the City of Industry and right next door to one of the nation's largest landfills can be worth getting up for in the dark on a Sunday morning.

The Puente Hills Landfill has been leaking a chemical soup into ground water for years, the State Water Resources Control Board learned from a staff report Thursday. But the board that oversees California's water supply delayed a decision on how to address the problem until next month as the landfill's operator, the county Sanitation Districts, argued that state engineers erred in their analysis.