Trash Contract OKd but City Is Given an Out

The Los Angeles City Council approved a five-year, $157-million extension of a contract to haul the city’s trash to Sunshine Canyon Landfill above Granada Hills on Tuesday, but in an unusual maneuver, will have 17 days to back out of the deal.

The council has been considering the contract for the politically unpopular dump since last summer. The council vote allowed the panel to meet its Tuesday contract deadline, but landfill owner Browning Ferris Industries gave its biggest customer time to reconsider.

The genesis for the council’s latest trash-inspired conundrum began Friday when it approved a policy to begin reducing the 940,000 tons of garbage it sends to Sunshine Canyon over the next five years. It did not endorse a plan to implement the policy but is hoping to increase recycling.

At the same time, the council has been exploring other options, including sending some or all of the city’s trash to two other landfills -- one in Corona in Riverside County, the other in Avenal, 200 miles north of Los Angeles in the San Joaquin Valley.

Corona City Manager Beth Groves recently wrote to Council President Eric Garcetti, imploring him not to send Los Angeles’ trash to her city. “You would quite literally be dumping your problem on us, a position we are strongly against,” she wrote.

Avenal Mayor Sid Craighead has said he welcomes Los Angeles’ trash because his city needs the money. He noted about 7,000 of the town’s 16,000 residents don’t contribute much to the tax rolls because they reside in Avenal State Prison.

One big issue before the Los Angeles City Council is whether it can talk BFI into preserving a bulk discount that the city gets for taking nearly all of its trash to Sunshine Canyon should Los Angeles begin using other landfills in addition to Sunshine Canyon.

Among other questions that the City Council must consider is the cost of sending the trash elsewhere -- city reports say it could be millions of dollars annually -- and whether doing so would increase smog and traffic by putting more trash trucks on freeways.