Hundreds crowd Castaic Middle School for community meeting on Chiquita’s problems
While the Chiquita Canyon Landfill might now be facing a closure deadline of early next year, residents still expressed frustration over the response to the issue, which is being handled by a task force of L.A. County, state and federal officials.
Hundreds of Santa Clarita Valley residents crowded Castaic Middle School on Monday for a scene many found frustratingly similar to one almost exactly six months earlier — residents expressing their anger over how the landfill’s pollution is impacting their health and quality of life at a Chiquita Canyon Landfill Community Advisory Committee meeting.
Everyone who spoke said they were there to tell the county that enough isn’t being done, which came from at times tearful voices that ranged from a local grade-school student to retirees.
Smells from the landfill’s gases and leachate have overwhelmed residents for more than a year and drawn thousands of complaints that have ranged from headaches to breathing difficulty to long-term health issues, possibly including cancer. The landfill also is producing an inordinate amount of leachate that has caused concern from local water officials.
Fifth District L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Monday that officials were not planning to grant the landfill’s recent request for an extension of its regulatory deadline, which means the landfill is likely to close in one to two months, based on the landfill’s estimate. The landfill has threatened to sue the county if it isn’t given an extension.
Barger said county counsel is planning to go to court against the landfill over those challenges and the difficulties residents have had in getting help from the relocation program, which also was a concern mentioned by state Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita.
Barger responded to claims she said she’s heard repeatedly that have alluded to a fear county officials have of being sued, due to a clause in a previous lawsuit settlement the county and landfill made.
“I’m hearing that the county will not … take on Waste Connections because we’re afraid of being sued again. That is not true,” she said.
Dozens of residents showed up more than an hour before the 6 p.m. meeting in the school’s multipurpose room to protest L.A. County’s response to problems at the landfill and call for a state of emergency declaration.
In addition to Barger and Wilk, local legislators present included Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, and Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita. All four said they wanted to see the landfill shut down when asked directly.
While the community has been calling for months for the landfill’s closure, the news it would likely shut down based on the landfill’s calculations brought little relief from residents who openly questioned whether that would really happen.
Each official shared their respective efforts, but Barger continued to take the brunt of criticism from the crowd, getting booed each time she defended the county’s standing decision not to declare a state of emergency.
That decision was based on both the state and the county saying there are no additional resources available from such a declaration, which the state also shared in a letter last week.
At first, Barger said she wasn’t going to have Kevin McGowan, the county’s emergency director, reiterate what he’s already told the community regarding the thresholds for a state of emergency.
A frustrated Garcia replied, “With all due respect, Supervisor Barger, that’s just not true,” once again telling the crowd that federal assistance won’t be available until the declaration comes at the county and state levels.
Garcia said the multilevel task force was merely “an illusion to make it seem like the county is doing something.”
Schiavo also continued to say it was necessary and that she was continuing to lobby Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office to get an emergency declared. Schiavo said that public health was her biggest concern, as someone who has worked in health care.
In response to a number of claims that have been made about the landfill causing cancer, Barger has authorized L.A. County officials to begin a community health survey around the claims. But even that effort, due to the fact that it started Monday, brought skeptical comments from the crowd who said it should have happened months ago.
Wilk said his office sent a letter to the landfill asking the owner, Waste Connections, to address residents’ concerns about the transparency behind the landfill’s relief program, but the response was basically to “F off.”
A spokesman for the landfill did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
The landfill has repeatedly said it is working with county, state and federal officials on resolving the landfill’s issues.