“Hope is not a strategy.”
For nearly three years, L.A. County officials have clung to “hope” as a solution for residents near the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. The trouble began when residents started reporting toxic, foul odors — far worse than the typical landfill smell. Something was changing inside the landfill, and for almost three years, county experts offered vague promises, but little was done to resolve the issue.
As complaints surged — reaching 19,788 in 2024 alone, along with 194 formal Air Quality Management District violations — the county assembled various task forces, assuring residents that they were working to get to the bottom of the problem.
Time passed, and what followed were weak attempts at relief: a couple million dollars for emergency assistance, and a secretive “Community Relief Fund” set up by Waste Connections to help residents “harden” their homes against the toxic fumes and hotel rooms when the stench was too much to bear.
But the relief was minimal.
The air quality in Val Verde and Castaic worsened, and common complaints ranged from headaches and nausea to breathing problems, depression, heart issues, and cancer.
For nearly three years, the county’s response has been to deploy untold counts of experts to provide air quality data and direct a sluggish remediation effort. In the meantime, data and graphs have done little to clear the air, and the relief funds have been woefully insufficient for the thousands affected. Yet, L.A. County officials continue selling hope as a solution, maintaining that the solution is just over the horizon.
Despite residents’ pleas for a state of emergency and calls for increased state support, Supervisor Kathryn Barger has refused to take this step. Local political leaders, from former Rep. Mike Garcia to Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, have urged her to act, but the county remains entrenched in its position.
Waste Connections has installed plastic covers over 90 acres of the landfill and set up some 200-plus pumps to remove toxic fluids, but the toxic odors persist.
In February, the company abruptly ended the secretive Community Relief Fund, leaving residents without even this insufficient financial assistance to mitigate the ongoing emissions.
That brings us to the latest twist. At the recent Chiquita Canyon Landfill Citizen’s Oversight Committee meeting, things took a turn for the worse.
County scientists revealed that Waste Connections’ graph, which claimed the crisis had stabilized, was misleading. The truth was even worse: A California Environmental Protection Agency leader revealed the underground chemical reaction had spread to an additional 30 acres, expanding eastward in an area that was once thought to be contained.
After nearly three years of trying to manage the crisis, the problem is now bigger than ever and is likely going to take many years to resolve. The underground fire is spreading, and toxic waste is being pumped out and treated at a staggering rate of 200,000 gallons per day. Toxic levels of volatile organic compounds are being released regularly, and the situation has not substantially improved.
Despite pleas from local leaders like Pilar Schiavo, who begged Supervisor Barger’s representative, Stephanie English, to declare a state of emergency, the county has remained unmoved. The response from English was consistent with the county’s past posture, “We’ll review it should the situation change” — which met with boos and protests from residents in the room.
In fact, the situation has indeed changed. The underground fire/reaction is expanding, and the emissions continue and might increase with the expanded area. What we’ve been doing is clearly not enough. It’s time for the county to reassess its approach.
We are facing an emergency. The situation is uncontained, and local residents continue to suffer. The simple right to clean air is being denied to families living near the landfill.
We saw how quickly the government acted with a state of emergency after the Palisades Fire. Now, it’s time for the same level of urgency in Val Verde. No, homes may not be burning, but the air is. No, houses may not be destroyed, but lives are.
L.A. County must declare a state of emergency and push for the state and federal support we desperately need. The health and well-being of the entire Santa Clarita Valley are at risk.
It’s time for real action, not just empty promises of hope.
Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
