The hearing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District is holding a discussion Saturday morning over the lingering problems at Chiquita Canyon Landfill.
More than a year after problems surfaced, literally, from an underground reaction at the landfill that’s created toxic leachate and noxious odors, the air regulators are going to talk about “a status report and/or consider a modification of the order for abatement” for the landfill.
The meeting will also be a chance for residents to discuss their concerns with the landfill in front of the hearing board.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons, according to an announcement from the South Coast AQMD.
The landfill is under scrutiny from a pair of federal task forces providing oversight to the local and state agencies regulating the facility. It has received an average of about 2,000 complaints per month recently, according to the last count from air quality officials.
The meeting is almost a month after the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced work by the landfill that’s expected to make the smell worse while taking place but should significantly address the odor issues, according to Michael Brogan, press officer for the EPA.
The work announced last month is for a nearly 2-acre portion of the western slope of the facility. It is expected to provide significant relief to the situation in approximately six weeks, according to Brogan.
“The project involves the removal of a plastic cover called a scrim currently covering the west slope, installation of a drain and sumps to better control the leachate, followed by the installation of a geomembrane cover,” he wrote in a July email.
The scrim work was mandated by a “unilateral administrative order” issued by a Multiagency Critical Action Team supervising the situation in concert with a Response Multi-Agency Coordination Group, Brogan said last month.
The landfill initially got the attention of regulators more than 16 months ago, due to a site at the landfill that’s producing a 250-degree reaction at its core and causing the landfill to sink unto itself, at a rate of about 12 inches a month.
As part of the byproduct of that chemical reaction, the landfill is producing around 1 million gallons of leachate per month, which is part of the smell problem, and an overwhelming amount of dimethyl sulfide, a smelly landfill gas, which appear to be separate but related issues.
At a Tuesday meeting of the Chiquita Canyon Advisory Commitee, landfill officials announced they would be holding more regular community meetings to inform residents about its reimbursement program, which it may change based on community feedback.
Questions remain about the transparency for the formula the landfill uses to compensate residents for the hardships they’ve faced as a result of the facility.
John Perkey, legal counsel for Waste Connections, said at the meeting the landfill considered the formula it uses as “work product protected by attorney-client privilege,” which is why the facility is not planning to release that information.
Many residents have shared a concern that if they take money from the fund, it will impact their ability to recover compensation in a lawsuit.
One source close to the pending lawsuits recently estimated the number of plaintiffs suing the landfill at more than 2,000.
During their update on the community relief fund totals Tuesday, Chiquita Canyon officials presented data indicating there were 402 new applications for the fund in July and approximately 665 recertifications for those benefits.
Landfill officials also indicated that they have had conversations with Five Point, the neighboring landowner, about putting a monitoring well south of the landfill’s property, which was a recent stipulated order the landfill was found to have violated because it failed to comply.
Chiquita Canyon Landfill General Manager Steve Cassulo said once a suitable site has been approved, installation of the well should take about one month.
The address for the Performing Arts Center is 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road.
