Environmental Report Disputed : Homeowners Assail Expanded Landfill

Granada Hills and Northridge homeowners Tuesday attacked an environmental report that says that expanding the Sunshine Canyon Landfill will generate only minimal noise, odor and health problems for neighbors.

The dump’s owner, Browning-Ferris Industries, has applied to the City of Los Angeles and to Los Angeles County for permission to expand its 230-acre dump by 760 acres. The dump is in the city, but the expansion would be northwest into county territory.

About 100 people packed a meeting room at the North Valley Jewish Community Center to discuss a preliminary draft of an environmental impact report on the proposed expansion. The report was commissioned by Browning-Ferris.

Mary Edwards, secretary of the North Valley Coalition, a homeowner group fighting to close the dump, called the report “a very flawed document.”

Edwards challenged the report’s contention that the dump presents no health hazard to nearby residents. She said the report does not adequately study the quality of air and water around the dump.

Edwards called the landfill a “mega-dump” and said: “This is going to make the Granada Hills into Garbage Hills.”

Councilman Hal Bernson lives near the dump and said he wants it closed. “The people of Granada Hills and the North Valley have suffered long enough,” Bernson said.

Comments from the meeting will be included in a draft environmental impact report, officials said.

That report will be turned over to Los Angeles County officials, who, along with the city and state, must approve the dump expansion, said Don M. De Mars, vice president of Irvine-based Ultrasystems , which prepared the preliminary report for Browning-Ferris. County officials plan to hold public hearings on the proposed dump expansion in late spring or early summer.

The preliminary report says the dump would be visible from hiking trails in O’Melveny Park, the city’s second largest park, and would change the interior contour of Sunshine Canyon but would not generally alter the skyline near the dump site. The dump addition would create only minor noise, odor and pollution problems, the report said.

The dump is within the city in the Santa Susana Mountains above Granada Hills. The proposed expansion would allow the dump to take in about triple its current 6,600 tons of trash per day and would allow it to operate well into the 21st Century, the report said. Without the expansion, the dump will be filled by 1991, when its conditional-use permit from the city expires.

Although the dump technically does not accept hazardous waste, residents fear health problems from hazardous materials that arrive at the dump in normal household trash. The homeowners contend that the dump’s proximity to the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the Los Angeles Reservoir threatens the city’s water supply.