Quake Shows Dangers of an Elsmere Landfill

* We in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys have a silver lining to the Jan. 17 earthquake. The proposal by the city and county of Los Angeles to put a 190-million-ton landfill in Elsmere Canyon has been dealt a “10” on the Richter scale.

Elsmere Canyon is adjacent to the intersection of the 5 and 14 freeways. For years geologists have warned the landfill proponents that this area--the Newhall Pass--is an area of enormous seismic instability. Hopefully, with this act of God, they will now listen.

Arguably, the Newhall Pass, the juncture of two major mountain ranges (the Santa Susanas and the San Gabriels), is the most seismically unstable area in Southern California. The 1971 Sylmar quake and the Northridge quake originated from two separate fault lines. Yet, in both, serious and costly damage occurred in the Newhall Pass.

I am sick to my stomach when I think what would have happened had the landfill been in place when this quake hit. The elevation of our valleys and surrounding mountains changed by feet in the course of 30 seconds. Landfills produce deadly methane gas. No methane gas system, however sophisticated, could have withstood the vertical jolt. The methane gas cloud produced by 190 million tons could have killed thousands of people in a passage across our valley floors.

Geologists cannot yet predict earthquakes. But, along with engineers, they can determine potentially dangerous areas in which construction should be avoided. Elsmere Canyon is seismically dangerous and should be avoided as a landfill site.

Additionally frightening is the fact that the Los Angeles Aqueduct runs right through Elsmere Canyon. A contamination of this precious water supply with garbage toxins would delay the delivery of a pure water supply by weeks, if not months, when the major quake hits. It goes without saying that the plastic landfill liner--designed to protect the acknowledged underground aquifer in Elsmere Canyon--would be breached and the ground water contaminated in the next serious earthquake.

The already congested Newhall Pass could not support the projected 2,400 trash trucks per day under the best of circumstances, and the construction of the required landfill off-ramp seems unwise.

We insist that Mayor Riordan, the Los Angeles City Council and the county Board of Supervisors take heed of this warning and immediately cancel the Joint Powers Agreement permitting expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars for this insane and deadly proposal.

The Elsmere Canyon Landfill is no longer about the preservation of the Angeles National Forest or property values. It is about the preservation of human life.

KEEFE FERRANDINI

President

Save the Angeles Foundation

Newhall