Trash Talk

My meeting with the Sierra Club

Last week, I went to a meeting with the Sierra Club out here in the Antelope Valley to talk to their members about Mayor Hahn's plan to ship the City's garbage out of the landfills in the Antelope Valley. I want to thank Dean Webb, President of the local Sierra Club Chapter, for putting me on the agenda and
to every one who I talked to at the meeting who wanted to know how they could get on board and stop this trashy plan. Apparently, the Sierra Club is the face of many of the lawsuits that have stopped developments and plans such as Hahn's from coming to fruition over the last few years in the Antelope Valley. Hopefully they'll oppose Los Angeles' trash-trucking plan and continue their record of success!

Mayor: PALMDALE DUMP MUST expand to take LA City Trash!!!

How's this for irony? Los Angeles doesn't want to expand its own landfills, so it plans on shipping its trash out to ours. But get this! In order to take the City of Los Angeles' trash, we have to expand our own dump in Palmdale!!!

That's what Mayor James Ledford said in his reply to my letter from last month:

Thank you for your e-mail dated February 5.

The Antelope Valley Public Landfill is currently permitted by the State of California to accept 1,400 tons daily of solid waste refuse. The current landfill is expected to reach capacity in approximately two years. The owner/operator of the landfill, Waste Management of the Antelope Valley, has already acquired the required permits and entitlements issued by the State of California and the County of Los Angeles to operate a second landfill (Antelope Valley Public Landfill II) located west of the existing landfill. The second landfill is currently permitted to accept 1,800 tons daily of solid waste refuse.

In addition, Waste Management has also submitted a Conditional Use Permit application to the City of Palmdale to link the two landfills into one contiguous landfill to provide additional landfill capacity. The City is currently in the process of reviewing this application, which also includes the preparation of a supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The City of Palmdale Planning Commission will be conducting public hearings on this application in 2005. These public hearings will be noticed and advertised as required by the Zoning Ordinance. If you are interested in receiving an individual notice at that time, please forward your name and mailing address to Richard Kite, Associate Planner, City of Palmdale Planning Department, 38250 Sierra Highway, Palmdale, CA, 93550. Your name will be added to a special mailing list for this proposal.

Thank you for voicing your concerns regarding the City of Los Angeles' solid waste hauling proposal. Please note that the City of Palmdale has not granted any entitlements or approvals to expand the landfill by connecting the two previously approved landfills.

Sincerely,

James C. Ledford, Jr.
Mayor

So do you think it's smart for the City of Los Angeles to base its entire solid waste policy on the assumption that Palmdale will expand their landfill to take it! Think again!!

Supervisor Antonovich: Why not study our landfills?!?

Here is the copy of a letter I sent yesterday to County Supervisor Mike Antonovich:

Dear Supervisor Antonovich,

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services had completed a study of the health effects of Sunshine Canyon Landfill. While the sounds of that are sure to upset Granada Hills neighbors it, “found little indication that the Sunshine Canyon Landfill near Granada Hills poses an elevated health risk for people living in the neighborhood!!!!”

I find one thing troubling:

Why haven’t we had similar studies done in Palmdale and Lancaster????

We need you to protect us.

I imagine there’s vested interests who want to show that Sunshine Canyon has adverse health effects so that their trash can be dumped on us. Are the landfills in Palmdale and Lancaster as regulated as Sunshine? Will they show how horrible it will be for me, and my family to live with LA’s trash? Probably not. And maybe that’s why Palmdale/ Lancaster will serve as dumping grounds for LA’s trash.

Now that Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn is insistent on taking the City’s trash out of Sunshine Canyon and sending it to landfills in Palmdale and Lancaster, it is about time that we all step up and conduct a similar study in our neighborhoods.

Until we have sufficient and reasonable evidence that this is the best solution for LA and Palmdale/ Lancaster, I hope you will join your constituents in opposing Mayor Hahn’s proposal. Jim Hahn calls Palmdale and Lancaster’s landfills “remote landfills.” Maybe to Jim Hahn, they’re remote. To my friends, family in Lancaster and Palmdale, and you, those landfills are not remote. They’re in our backyard.

Please stand up for us, Supervisor Antonovich. We voted on you to be our representative because we believe that you will protect and serve in our best interest; and now we need to know we can count on you to deliver.