News release
Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, joined residents and community leaders in the Val Verde community of Castaic last week at a press conference to announce the passage of her Landfill Safety Act out of the Legislature and urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign the bill.
This legislation would create stronger protections for communities facing dangerous underground landfill fires and elevated temperature events, said a news release from Schiavo’s office.
“For years, families in Castaic and Val Verde have lived with toxic air causing serious health impacts. Beyond their suffering health, they also have loss of property value and income, missing work, and paying for 24/7 AC and air filters because they can’t open their windows. Our neighbors shouldn’t fear simply being in their own homes because it puts their families at risk,” Schiavo said in the release. “They sounded the alarm, demanded action, traveled to Sacramento, testified before lawmakers, and refused to let their community be forgotten. The Landfill Safety Act takes what we have learned from this disaster and puts protections into law so communities across California do not have to go through what our neighbors have endured.”
The public health crisis at Chiquita Canyon Landfill has grown into an underground fire covering over 90 acres, releasing noxious gases and toxic leachate, and creating ongoing public health and environmental impacts for surrounding communities, the release said.
Residents have reported multiple health symptoms for which they blame the landfill.
“For my family, friends, and neighbors, what is happening at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill isn’t something we see on the news, we are living it every day. We live with toxic odors coming from the landfill, we wake up to them,” Yasmina Valdivia, a Val Verde community member, said in the release. “We shouldn’t have to leave the community we love because we are afraid of the landfill.”
The Landfill Safety Act, according to the release, would establish a statewide framework for responding when dangerous elevated temperatures are detected at landfills. The legislation would require landfill operators to notify state and local regulators when a subsurface elevated temperature event occurs and give CalRecycle stronger authority to require corrective action to mitigate and resolve the problem. It requires a comprehensive health study and that the results are made public.
The bill also allows penalties of up to $100,000 per day when landfill operators fail to comply with required actions. Those penalties would be directed into a new community fund to help people harmed by a landfill disaster with costs including relocation, home hardening, damages, expenses, and other impacts.
Schiavo’s Landfill Data Transparency Act, Assembly Bill 2674,has also passed the Legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature. The bill would strengthen transparency around landfill conditions and provide communities better access to information about potential threats to public health and safety, the release said.
The governor has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto AB 28 and AB 2674.
