Water Officials Cheer Azusa Landfill Ruling

SACRAMENTO — San Gabriel Valley water officials have hailed a decision by the State Water Resources Control Board to turn down a proposed expansion of the Azusa Landfill as a victory in their fight to safeguard drinking water supplies for 1 million area residents.

“It was a victory for the good guys,” declared Burton J. Gindler , a lawyer for the Main San Gabriel Watermaster, an organization of water producers opposed to the dump expansion.

But Bryant C. Danner, lawyer for the Azusa Landfill, said he was disappointed by Thursday’s board action which rejected a staff recommendation to allow the size of the dump to be increased to receive 6,000 tons a day. The dump, the least active landfill in Los Angeles County, now receives only 1,500 tons a day.

‘Can Work Something Out’

Danner denied that the proposal would harm the underground water supply and said he remains “optimistic we can work something out.”

The board, which is charged with protecting the state’s drinking water, voted 3 to 1 not to accept the staff recommendation that sought the installation of a plastic liner and drainage system and a second barrier to block waste pollutants from contaminating the underground water supply before Azusa Land Reclamation Co., could expand its dump.

The State Water Resources Control Board asked both sides to attempt to hammer out a compromise and report back at a hearing next month. At issue is whether any system of liners and barricades can reduce the potential health risk so water agencies will lift their objections to the landfill expansion.

Less Restrictive Order

Meanwhile, as a result of a technicality, a less restrictive order adopted last November by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, which allowed the expansion with only one set of protective liners, remains in effect. The state board has set a hearing for Aug. 31 to review that order.

The Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster appealed the regional board’s decision to the state board, maintaining that allowing the dump to expand in the porous sand and gravel pit would eventually damage the water basin.

Much of the basin, which extends from Alhambra to La Verne, is contaminated with industrial solvents. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun a cleanup that it says could take hundreds of millions of dollars and decades of work.

Azusa Land Reclamation Co., a subsidiary of Browning-Ferris Industries, wants to provide space for an additional 40 million tons of trash. Landfill supporters said the dump is needed because the county is running out of places to dump its garbage.

The landfill’s differences with water companies were brought into sharp focus during Thursday’s lively two-hour hearing.

Besides the watermaster, officials from the State Water Resources Department, the Metropolitan Water District and the Environmental Defense Fund argued that any liner system eventually would fail, undermining the safety of the water supply.

In an interview, Tom Graff, lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund, said contamination of the basin’s water could increase pressure on the state’s water supplies and force importation of more water into Southern California.

Other critics pointed out that the water board’s staff concluded “that there is a reasonable likelihood that ground water could reach within five feet of waste” if the landfill is expanded with only a single liner.

Danner, representing the dump operator, noted that the landfill has been unlined since it opened in 1960, without any contamination of the water. Danner said he disagreed with the need for the extra barrier but said his client is prepared to install the system.

He maintained: “This landfill over the short and long haul will not add any risk . . . any significant environmental risk” to the water. “We’ve done the best we can to design every possible precaution,” he said.