Residents Protest Council Decision to Use Landfills

Despite angry protests from residents, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to haul the city’s trash to two San Fernando Valley landfills after the city’s main dump, the Lopez Canyon landfill, closes June 30.

On a 10-3 vote, the council agreed to send 63% of the city’s trash to the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley and the remainder to the Sunshine Canyon landfill near Granada Hills. The city is expected to dump 820,000 tons of trash next year.

The $65.4-million contracts allows the city to dump trash in Sunshine Canyon for seven years and in the Bradley landfill for five years. Both facilities are expected to reach capacity when the contracts expire.

About 50 protesters wearing signs that said “DUMP L.A.” objected to the decision, saying it is unfair to continue to dump the city’s refuse in the Valley. Lopez Canyon, the last city-owned dump, is in Lake View Terrace.

Most of the protest was over the use of the Sunshine Canyon dump, a 215-acre facility that straddles the city and county border north of Granada Hills. The city side of the dump closed in 1991 but the owner of the facility, Browning-Ferris Industries, plans to reopen it on the county side.

Wayde Hunter, president of the North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens, a group opposed to the Sunshine Canyon facility, said the proposal may save money over the cost of dumping elsewhere but ignores the problems of noise, odors and trash near the landfill.

“You get the cash and we get the trash,” he said.

He and other Sunshine Canyon neighbors vowed to lead a secession campaign from the city.

But some of the council members noted that the Sunshine Canyon landfill has already won a permit by the county of Los Angeles and will accept refuse regardless of whether the city dumps there or not.