L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger responded Friday to a letter from 22 members of the Los Angeles Legislative Delegation asking about the worsening environmental crisis at Chiquita Canyon Landfill.
Noting the landfill’s relief program has “fallen short of expectation” as the subsurface fire has grown from 30 to 90 acres, Barger described the county and state’s plans going forward in a response sent last week.
Barger’s letter also came one day after the South Coast Air Quality Management District Hearing Board levied additional reporting requirements for ongoing problems at the landfill.
State legislators, led by Assembly members Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, and Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, sent their letter April 15, citing state agencies that call a “massive expansion” of the landfill’s problems an “urgent environmental and public health crisis.”
“Assembly, Senate and congressional representatives have been told by the county health officer that despite this massive expansion, additional action beyond monitoring air quality and logging community health symptoms will not be taken,” said the legislators’ letter. “This is unacceptable and a departure from past actions of the (L.A. County Public Health) Department.”
Sen. Suzette Valladares, D-Acton, issued a statement of support for the advocacy Wednesday, via email from Ashley Giovannettone, her communications director.
“The impacted community members have been waiting for far too long for meaningful relief. I will be asking California Attorney General (Rob) Bonta to join the county’s lawsuit, which hopefully will result in badly needed relocation assistance for those impacted,” her statement said. “Also, I will be introducing legislation that will exempt impacted residents from paying property taxes. I’m grateful to the federal, state and local authorities who have been working hard on the ground to get Chiquita Canyon cleaned up and I’m fully committed to advocating for our impacted residents to get the help and support they need from the state.”
The lawmakers’ letter goes on to draw comparisons to the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak, in requesting a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response, or CASPER, study.
The letter also reiterates health concerns based on recent testimony from residents.
“There are similar circumstances around Chiquita Canyon Landfill, with numerous toxic air contaminants such as hydrogen sulfide, methane, and carcinogens such as benzene, acrolein, and more present,” according to the letter, referencing the Aliso Canyon gas leak that prompted a state of emergency request nearly a decade ago. “Air monitoring in the Val Verde community has shown benzene reaching above 6.12 (parts per billion), nearing the 8 ppb recommended exposure limit for eight hours, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District found exceedances of hydrogen sulfide above the one-hour standard of 30 ppb. Remember, residents have been exposed 24 hours a day for three years with multiple decades to come — not one or eight hours.”
The response from Barger lists four measures, including an expansion of the containment tarp to make its coverage stretch to 100 acres; orders to move one of the leachate tank farms; and an expansion of the soil barrier, which must be done to prevent an expansion of the event.
She also states that the legislators’ comparisons to the Aliso Canyon crisis “fail to recognize the substantial differences” in the two situations and that “state and county regulatory agencies continue to work in lockstep” on Chiquita Canyon’s problems.
“Contrary to what you suggest in your letter, the state and county’s regulatory response has been both robust and coordinated,” Barger wrote.
An April 17 statement from the AQMD noted the agency has received more than 28,000 complaints over the past two years.
The new orders for Chiquita are aimed at: enhancing the incident reporting with root cause analysis and whether the involved personnel received training; improved spill-prevention measures; and a requirement for additional inspections of seams and seal points of the geosynthetic cover over the reaction area to prevent or mitigate surface emissions of landfill gas.
Barger also again said there will be no emergency declaration, challenging the claims from the area’s state and congressional representatives who have said that there is a potential for federal assistance available, particularly now that Chiquita has ended its relief program.
Barger said those claims are not true and that a federal emergency did not follow the county and state declarations in the Aliso Canyon situation.
“I will not mislead residents, promising financial relief that state, county and federal officials have made clear is not available and exacerbate their anguish,” she added.
Schiavo and the delegation responded with another letter Wednesday, this time to Gov. Gavin Newsom, with Schiavo also reiterating her stance that the county’s lawsuit alone is not adequate as a response because it will take years to provide any relief. In Aliso, the settlement was given three years later.
County officials indicated at a recent Castaic Area Town Council meeting that the county’s legal response includes working on a request for injunctive relief, which could accelerate that timeline.
