Walnut : Facts on Landfill Sought

Reacting to mounting concern over the Spadra Landfill expansion site next to Walnut, the City Council approved a resolution Wednesday asking the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts and Cal Poly Pomona to provide evidence that possible pollution, odors and noise from the site will not pose a threat to Walnut residents.

The resolution also called for the hiring of a private consultant to review the project’s 1985 environmental impact report if the response from the county and Cal Poly Pomona, which oversees the expansion site as part of a laboratory study, is judged inadequate.

More than 100 residents jammed the council chambers Wednesday to plead for closure of the landfill expansion. Many of them chastised the council for not backing a drive to shut down the Spadra facility altogether.

Councilman Drexel Smith responded that the council has backed a waste-by-rail project that is the “only viable long-term alternative to solve our trash problem.” But he added that completion of that project will take at least three more years.