The small audience sat on plush seats in the large hall, spread around. Everyone has his own row. Some had three. When the program reached “Comments From the Public,” the audience, one by one, came to the microphone and said things like:
“We are being poisoned in our homes.”
“We keep doors and windows closed.”
“I’ve had cancer twice.”
These were neighbors of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic who had traveled to Sacramento to tell their government what was happening to them. (Quotes above, in order, were from Oshea Orchid, Jennifer Elkins and Kerry Frohling.) The part of the state government meeting in that hall on Nov. 20 was the California Air Resources Board, a 16-person body that, among other things, makes the rules that landfill operators are supposed to follow.
Chiquita Canyon Landfill is not the only one in our state being a nuisance to nearby residents. Others who testified came from Kern County and Stanislaus County. Each speaker had two minutes, though those who spoke in Spanish had a bit more time to allow for the translator.
A request voiced by several to the board: “Please don’t nod your heads and then do nothing.”
The meeting adjourned at 3 p.m. Now we will all see if anything happens.
Tom Day
Stevenson Ranch
