Prior to the start of another six-hour hearing, air regulators accused Waste Connections and Chiquita Canyon Landfill of weaponizing accommodations and gamesmanship in dragging out its hearing process, which the landfill’s lawyers denied Tuesday.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board on Wednesday announced “stronger mitigation measures to address persistent odors that have been impacting the community for years,” according to a statement from the agency. “New and modified requirements include expanded remote air monitoring and the use of drones for aerial surveillance to detect landfill emissions more rapidly and in areas that are inaccessible.”
The hearing opened with the board denying a request from the district, which claimed that Chiquita improperly dropped 16 exhibits and 1,000 pages of evidence without prior notice.
Waste Connections’ counsel said the rebuttal evidence was timely, and the company’s actions followed the months of precedent both sides have set through the hearing process.
Ultimately, the evidence was allowed.
Board member Cynthia Verdugo-Peralta said it would be ridiculous to drag the hearing on any longer, after hearing so much heartbreaking testimony from Castaic and Val Verde residents who have been plagued by the landfill’s problems for nearly 30 months.
“We need to complete this and Chiquita needs to find some solutions faster than they are. I’m not really happy with how this is being dragged on even further,” Verdugo-Peralta said Tuesday during the hearing. “I would never want to see this go on and on, for the sake of the public.”
A spokesman for Chiquita Canyon Landfill said the landfill does not comment on active litigation Wednesday in response to the board’s decision.
The agency reported Wednesday it is approaching 30,000 complaints since January 2023. Its first abatement order was issued in September that year, and then later modified in January, April, August and November 2024, and again in April 2025.
Further testimony from the South Coast District and then Waste Management’s consultants resulted in the following orders being issued this week, according to the district’s statement:
- Install remote gas system monitoring: Expand the remote system to monitor landfill gas wells, with real-time data available to South Coast AQMD, as well as reporting on actions taken to address issues observed from the real-time data.
- Drone-based methane inspections: Conduct drone-based aerial surveillance using methane detecting sensors over the reaction area weekly and over the entire landfill monthly, to provide emissions information more rapidly than ground-based surface monitoring and in areas not accessible by foot. Conduct immediate follow-up ground-level inspection and remediation of any detected air emission exceedances. Findings from these inspections are documented in monthly reports submitted to South Coast AQMD.
- Daily cover inspections and repair using higher-quality material to limit tears: Inspect the landfill and geosynthetic covers in and around the reaction area daily and repair any identified tears or rips with a higher-quality cover material at least 6 mm thick to prevent future tears and limit surface air emissions.
