Proposed Garbage Pact Would Set Quota for City

A proposed agreement between the city and county of Los Angeles on development of a regional garbage dump in Elsmere Canyon would result in the city paying fines if it failed to deliver large volumes of trash.

Environmentalists said the provision could discourage recycling and make it more difficult for the city to comply with a state law requiring the volume of trash sent to landfills to be sharply reduced.

The proposed pact, already endorsed by county supervisors, would penalize the city if less than 6,000 tons per day of trash generated within city limits is hauled to the planned dump near the junction of the Antelope Valley and Golden State freeways east of the city of Santa Clarita. The city would pay a penalty of $1 for each ton less than that amount, although the fine could be raised by as much as 6% per year.