Dump Plans to Stay Open Through 2006 : Landfill: President of BKK says agreement with the city to shut down in 1995 is based on stipulations that have not been met. A new round of lawsuits may be coming.

WEST COVINA —  Eleven more years of trucks. Eleven more years of trash. And 11 more years of cash.

Operators of the BKK landfill are vowing to keep the West Covina dump open as late as 2006--11 years after the city is counting on it shutting down.

Although the landfill provides the cash-strapped city with millions of dollars a year in revenue, it is fiercely opposed by residents who live nearby. After months of public hearings, the City Council this week approved a plan that assumes the $5 million annually in BKK revenues would not be available as of 1995.

Shutting the landfill will be financially painful for the city, and probably will mean an increase in sewer and public works fees that could cost the average household nearly $20 a year more. It could also mean higher fees for paramedic services and deep cuts in other city services. But no West Covina officials are talking about keeping the landfill open.

In fact, the city and BKK, which both agreed in 1985 to close the dump within 10 years, appear headed back to court to settle the controversial landfill’s fate.

“BKK is not going to close in ’95 unless we force them to,” Councilman Bradley McFadden said at a meeting Monday night on the city’s long-range financial plan. The city has sued BKK in the past to force the landfill to eliminate noise, odor and pollution problems.

“We’ll know in a month whether this will end up in court,” BKK President Ken Kazarian said Tuesday.

BKK argues the city should honor the 30-year operating permit it granted, which allows the landfill to stay open until 2006. The city says BKK waived the right to accept trash after 1995.

However, Kazarian said BKK agreed to shut the landfill--one of the largest in the country--only if commercial or light industrial uses were in the works at the site by 1995. But delays by both sides and the recession have made that impossible, Kazarian said. And, he said, the landfill has not reached capacity, and may not until 2006.

Without new businesses generating revenue at the site, BKK will lose money and the city will lose a key source of revenue as host of one of the last remaining dumps in Los Angeles County.

West Covina residents may be willing to tolerate BKK’s operation for a few more years to minimize the pain of harsh budget cutbacks and new fees, city officials said.

But hundreds of residents living near the dump--fearful for their health and angry that trucks from all over Southern California drive by their homes--have started marshaling forces to fight the plan to keep the facility open past 1995.