Riordan Refuses to Reopen Landfill for Quake Rubble : Sanitation: Company offers to temporarily accept debris for free at Sunshine Canyon dump. But mayor says facilities serving L.A. are adequate.

As Los Angeles sanitation officials study the possibility of hauling trash to Utah, Mayor Richard Riordan has rejected a proposal to temporarily reopen a controversial landfill north of Granada Hills to accept earthquake rubble.

Riordan’s office notified operators of the closed Sunshine Canyon Landfill on Tuesday that there is no immediate need to reopen the dump because adequate landfill space exists for the debris created by the Jan. 17 quake.

A spokesman for the landfill’s operator, Browning Ferris Industries, called the decision “preposterous,” saying BFI is willing to take rubble for free from public agencies for 30 days while the Utah landfill will charge $45 per ton.

“If they say they can take it to Utah for $45 per ton, then we can do it for $45 cheaper,” said BFI spokesman Arnie Berghoff.

But city officials said that the Utah trash-hauling idea is only being considered as a long-term landfill alternative and that landfills serving Los Angeles have enough capacity to meet the immediate needs after the quake.

However, if the city decides to implement the Utah dumping proposal to accept earthquake rubble, federal emergency funding may be available to subsidize the cost, said Lillian Kawasaki, general manager of the city’s Environmental Affairs Department, which regulates landfills.

A study by city and state agencies concluded that landfills in the area are accepting only 38% of the maximum amounts allowed under emergency limits issued after the earthquake.

Based on that study, Riordan decided not to exercise his emergency powers to grant a permit allowing Sunshine Canyon to open because “it just wasn’t needed,” said Riordan spokeswoman Annette Castro.

BFI first proposed the idea of reopening a portion of the landfill to earthquake rubble in letters to Riordan and all 15 members of the City Council three days after the Jan. 17 quake.

The 200-acre landfill, which straddles the city-county boundary in the Santa Susana Mountains above Granada Hills, closed in September, 1991, after its operating permit expired.

Berghoff said BFI would temporarily open the city portion of the landfill--part of it lies in the unincorporated county and part in the city--to accept earthquake rubble and charge no dumping fees to city, county and state agencies and local residents for 30 days. Private firms would be charged the regular fee of about $20 per ton.

But Councilman Hal Bernson, whose district includes part of the landfill and who has worked for years to close it, has vehemently opposed the idea, calling it “just another way to get in.”

“They were closed because they violated a lot of rules and now they have an application to reopen the landfill,” Bernson said, referring to zoning violations against BFI in 1989.

Bernson proposed his alternative Tuesday when he instructed sanitation officials to investigate the idea of hauling trash by rail to Utah to meet the city’s long-term landfill needs once current landfills reach capacity.

Kawasaki said she plans to schedule a meeting soon with city officials to investigate the feasibility of Bernson’s trash-hauling idea.