By The Signal Editorial Board
If you live in Val Verde, chances are you’re not feeling a whole lot of patience for the Chiquita Canyon Landfill debacle to wind its way through “the process.”
You know, the process. Litigation. Legislation. Government wrangling. Politicians’ posturing. All of that could take years before any real assistance reaches those victimized not just by the stench but by what the Environmental Protection Agency is now calling “an imminent threat to surrounding communities.”
By then, the landfill’s parent company, Texas-based Waste Connections, may be long gone, having Texas-two-stepped its way out of shouldering the ultimate responsibility.
Santa Clarita Valley residents, in general, should be alarmed — much more alarmed than they seem to be. The latest news from the EPA, after a March 5 inspection to follow up on the problem caused by trash literally burning deep within the landfill, reported that inspectors observed “potential slope failure at the southmost end of the western toe of the landfill.”
In addition to causing increased leachate seeps between the landfill’s geomembrane cover and the landfill fire, the buildup of leachate could cause a failure of the west slope “such that saturated material could collapse towards the stormwater channel,” per the EPA.
What does that mean? Well, in the worst case, if the slope fails it could mean many gallons of toxic leachate run off into the local water table.
You know. The underground water table that supplies drinking water and irrigates crops. Ventura County residents and farmers should be plenty worried, too.
Meanwhile, those of our neighbors who live closest to the landfill are living with the stench caused by that “Elevated Temperature Landfill” event (cause unknown) taking place within the landfill. Many have reported health problems, ranging from the inconvenient (it stinks) to the severe (can’t breathe, suffering respiratory problems and other illnesses).
The problem is expected to take as long as two decades to be rectified. Think the company will stick around for the duration of that? It’s a solid question. What has Waste Connections done so far to help the impacted residents? Well, for about a year, it provided an assistance fund to help residents with things like relocation, air filters, etc. But in February 2025, the landfill company terminated the program, even though the area’s residents were still suffering. They still are.
The company has done very little to help residents since then, and don’t expect it to resume any such efforts voluntarily.
While there’s a minor glimmer of hope of help through the courts — groups of residents are suing, with an estimated 2,000 plaintiffs involved, as is L.A. County — there’s also a strong possibility the residents most impacted may never see anything more than pennies on the dollar they should be entitled to.
Meanwhile, their community is unlivable and those who do own their homes are looking at owning property they may never be able to sell at what would be otherwise fair market value.
Some have fled. The Castaic Area Town Council even had a member resign because he moved out of his home near the landfill rather than continue breathing the stench of burning trash.
“(Steven Howse) and his family moved out of the area, basically for health reasons because of what’s going on at the landfill,” council President Bob Lewis said during a January meeting of the Town Council, which serves as a liaison between the community and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
You’d think that sort of thing would get the county’s attention. But there hasn’t been enough evidence of it.
Over the past couple of years, most of what we’ve seen in terms of government response has amounted to “process” (litigation), research (the county is studying the health problems, including reports of cancer cases, to see if they are connected to the landfill), minor assistance (legislative tax relief for those receiving relocation help), or legislation geared toward “prevention” of something like this ever happening again. To her credit, Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, has carried legislation on those last two items. We applaud her for this, and the tax relief bill was signed into law last year.
But overall, other than those two bills and the long-term “processes,” the government reaction has been lethargic when it comes to actually providing timely help to those who need it.
While the crisis in Val Verde doesn’t yet rise to the level of the crises caused by last year’s L.A. fires, it is a crisis none the less, and the reaction of L.A. County to the hardships of its constituents in Val Verde doesn’t seem to be “crisis-level.” In fact, the county, through our valley’s representative, Kathryn Barger, has said it’s unnecessary to declare a state of emergency because the county plans to hold the landfill operator accountable.
Ask someone who lives with the Chiquita stench every day if they think this is an “emergency.”
Or, do we have to wait for the slope to fail, or for an active surface fire at the landfill, or for leachate to pollute the water supply … would that, then, be an “emergency”?
It’s long past time for more concrete actions to help.
It’s hard not to think that the Chiquita crisis is getting the “back burner” treatment from the county Board of Supervisors because the people most affected — the residents of Val Verde — are neither affluent nor influential. The story also hasn’t gained a lot of traction in the greater SCV — including its more affluent enclaves — because those residents haven’t been directly affected. Yet.
The county needs to step it up. After all, the county was the permitting agency that needed Chiquita not just to handle SCV’s trash, but also trash from elsewhere in the county.
We’re calling on all five members of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to declare a state of emergency and immediately put their heads together to find concrete ways to help those residents most impacted — those underserved, distressed residents who would probably get a lot more attention from L.A. County if they were either affluent, or lived in the inner city. It will cost taxpayer money, at least for now. But it’s the right thing to do.
No more letting the “process” play out. The people of Val Verde can’t wait. Nor should they have to.
