Santa Clarita residents gathered Thursday in a protest calling for the immediate closure of the Castaic-based Chiquita Canyon landfill after it was accused of illegally dumping waste in Gardena and being described by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an “imminent danger” to the public.
In a statement released Thursday, the EPA called on the landfill company to take “immediate steps to protect human health and the environment at its non-hazardous municipal solid waste landfill in Castaic.”
The agency accused the landfill of producing hazardous waste leachate and harmful odors to nearby communities and ordered it to mitigate its impact.
“This order reflects EPA’s commitment to ensuring landfill operators mitigate noxious odors and comply with federal law to prevent public exposure to hazardous wastes,” Martha Guzman, EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator, said in a press release.
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According to the federal agency, more than 6,000 complaints were submitted by nearby residents of Chiquita Canyon to the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District. The majority of the complaints were regarding the landfill’s odors and leachate affecting their communities, which resulted in the issuance of more than 100 violation notices from state and local agencies.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose constituents include residents in communities impacted by the landfill, issued a statement saying affected residents have “every right to voice their concerns and exercise their legal options.”
“Undeniably, residents who live near the Chiquita Canyon Landfill have been suffering,” Barger said in her statement. “I have led the charge to demand accountability from the landfill operator and County and State agencies who have regulatory oversight over the landfill.”
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"Upon hearing the community’s initial calls for the landfill’s closure, I immediately directed the County to investigate every single aspect of the landfill’s compliance with County Codes and their Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to operate."
"The County cannot unilaterally close the landfill without justification. Because the odors do not originate from active portions of the landfill and since the landfill’s operator is actively working to abate odors, closing the Chiquita Canyon Landfill would have no effect on decreasing or eliminating odors.”
According to Barger, the closure of Chiquita Canyon is “currently warranted under the conditions of the county’s CUP” based on information that included the analysis of air quality monitoring data.
