Regulators fault Chiquita Canyon Landfill for worsening odor

Environmental regulators are faulting Chiquita Canyon Landfill for making “no significant enchancment” in decreasing noxious odors emanating from the Castaic facility and have ordered operators to take further steps to handle the issue.

In a three-day public listening to, South Coast Air High quality District legal professional Kathryn Roberts argued that Chiquita Canyon is working below “crisis-like circumstances” as a result of its operators “selected to actively conceal” early indicators of an underground landfill hearth.

Now, the landfill employees is pressured to implement emergency measures which can be exacerbating odors, equivalent to excavating and relocating buried trash to stop landslides.

“Many of those actions even have the adversarial aspect impact of accelerating odors within the instant and brief time period although they’re thought of essential to curb the emergency conditions occurring on the landfill,” Roberts mentioned at an Aug. 17 listening to.

Since Might 2022, rubbish has been burning inside a closed portion of Chiquita Canyon — Los Angeles County’s second-largest landfill — as a consequence of a uncommon heat-producing chemical response, in line with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company.

However environmental regulators solely turned conscious of the issue final yr when an inspector from the native air district found white smoke and liquids escaping from the landfill’s floor.

The air district had ordered Waste Connections, the proprietor and operator of Chiquita Canyon, in September 2023 to undertake a collection of tasks to mitigate odors and management the fiery response space.

Now, almost a yr later, the pungent odors persist, and have been reported in neighborhoods a number of miles away.

This yr, the air district has obtained 13,000 odor complaints for Chiquita Canyon Landfill, up from 7,000 in 2023. The company has issued about 200 violations in reference to the complaints.

For his or her half, Chiquita Canyon representatives argued there isn’t a straightforward repair to extinguish the smoldering circumstances affecting 30 acres of the 639-acre landfill. Because the air district ordered, landfill employees have drilled and put in 220 new gasoline assortment wells and 80 pumps to extract piping-hot landfill gases and leachate. They’re additionally supposed to alleviate the strain and warmth constructing a whole bunch of toes underground.

Thus far, there’s been no important lower in temperatures contained in the 30-acre response zone. Nonetheless, the issue has not expanded to different parts of the landfill.

Lots of the wells that the air district had ordered put in haven’t been drilled deep sufficient to seize smelly landfill gases, as a consequence of security issues.

“This isn’t unusual in landfills experiencing elevated temperature circumstances the place the crews can run into points equivalent to closely saturated waste,” mentioned Vidhya Viswanathan, an official with SCS Engineers. “You might have borehole collapses. We even have the chance of triggering pressurized leachate releases. And, so all of those include their very own security issues.”

Roberts mentioned that Chiquita Canyon was far not on time with the set up of a big impermeable cowl, which was supposed to suppress odors. Initially marketed as a 10-week challenge, the landfill now says it gained’t be accomplished till October.

The landfill has additionally introduced greater than 100 tanks to retailer hundreds of thousands of gallons of leachate, which incorporates benzene and different chemical substances.

At occasions, the removing of hazardous liquid waste has gone awry. On Aug. 15, a employee overfilled a leachate storage tank, inflicting 3,000 gallons of rancid liquid waste to spill.

The air district’s listening to board, which decides enforcement issues, ordered Chiquita Canyon to develop its monitoring, restrict excavation and use odor suppressants.

The air district’s attorneys additionally referred to as for the landfill to stop operations between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., citing unfavorable wind patterns that carried foul smells into close by communities. However Chiquita Canyon representatives opposed these measures, saying it might cripple their operation.

“The district is trying to basically shut the Chiquita Canyon Landfill by draconian limits on the landfill’s waste consumption which may have rippling and dramatic results on the administration of strong waste for Los Angeles County,” mentioned Megan Morgan, an legal professional representing Waste Connections.

The listening to board is scheduled to carry one other listening to on the operation restrictions and different circumstances on Nov. 13-14.