Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-05-14 - AGENDA REPORTS - CHIQUITA CYN LANDFILL RECOVERY (2)AGENDA REPORT City Manager Approval Item to be presented by: Jill KIa'ic, Councilmember NEW BUSINESS DATE: May 14, 1996 SUBJECT: STATUS REPORT - PROPOSED CHIQUITA CANYON LANDFILL EXPANSION AND RESOURCE RECOVERY FACILITIES DEPARTMENT: City Manager's Office/City Council The proposed Chiquita Canyon Landfill Expansion and Resource Recovery Facilities have been addressed by the City Council on August 22, 1995 and again on November 28, 1995. The City Council directed staff to submit comments to the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on both occasions and authorized the expenditure of $8,000 to assist the Val Verde Civic Association with the cost of an Air Quality Consultant to review the project's potential impacts on air quality in the City. To date, approximately $7300 has been expended. Hearings for the project Draft Environmental Impact Report before the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission have been completed. The Regional Planning Commission directed county staff to prepare conditions based upon 50% of the applicant's requested expansion and return to the commission for final consideration at a later, unspecified date. Staff recently contacted Los Angeles County to determine if a date had been set for a final hearing. County staff was unaware of any date set for the final hearing process. The Val Verde Civic Association continues to actively oppose the proposed expansion and has requested that the City Council support an appeal to the Board of Supervisors following the anticipated approval by the Regional Planning Commission. This request was made to the City Council on both August 22, 1995 and November 14, 1995 each request was deferred until the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission had rendered its final decision at which time the City Council asked that a review of the project and Planning Commission decision be placed on the next available City Council Agenda for consideration of a possible appeal. APrp-h 0u Adequate time is available to allow for consideration by City Council following the Planning Commission decision. Another governmental body may file an appeal without paying filing fees, a major benefit to the Civic Association. Councilwoman HIajic requested that this item be placed on the agenda and will present the item this evening. RECOMMENDATION Receive report and presentation from Councilwoman HIajic. ATTACHMENT November 28, 1996 Agenda Report N f City Manager Approval Item to be presented by: eff Kohn NEW BUSINESS DATE: November 28, 1995 SUBJECT: DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT — PROPOSED CIHQUITA CANYON LANDFILL EXPANSION AND RESOURCE RECOVERY FACILITIES; SUBMISSION OF ADDITIONAL CITY COMMENTS TO THE REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION DEPARTMENT: City Manager/Special Projects Staff reported on the proposed expansion to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill at the regular Council meeting of August 22, 1995, and prepared a letter of technical comments for the Regional Planning Commission meeting of August 23, 1995. Council received the report and comments from the public, particularly from the community of Val Verde, and directed staff to present the letter to the Regional Planning Commission, and then to re-examine the Draft Environmental Impact Report and to expand the technical comments as necessary. The previous staff report, detailing the proposed expansion, is in the Council reading file. The Regional Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on the application on Wednesday, August 23, at Valencia High School, and visited the site later that month. The hearings have been continued to November 30, and written testimony will be accepted through that date. Staff has prepared the attached letter to be presented at that meeting, as Council directs. At the Council meeting of November 14, 1995, residents of Val Verde presented additional comments to the Council, requesting that Council support their request for denial of the application. They also had earlier met with the Mayor and requested assistance in hiring an air quality consultant. Staff has met with the City Manager to discuss the costs of doing this, and consider that a "not -to -exceed" expenditure of $8,000.00 to be appropriate, since the City will also benefit from the consultant's work. Staff has learned from testimony presented to the Regional Planning Commission that the expansion is opposed by the Val Verde Civic Association, LASER, and SCOPE, and is supported by the Castaic Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, and the Valencia Industrial Center Association and the Castaic Town Council has taken no position. J Foi)J P,'1iA, IL q Agenda Item: %3 The Chquita Canyon landfill is an existing Class III waste disposal facility located on the north side of SR 126, west of I-5, east of Chiquita Canyon Road, and immediately south of Val Verde. It has been operated by Laidlaw Waste Systems since 1986, on land leased from the Newhall Land and Farming Corporation. The landfill is currently operating under a Conditional Use Permit (C.U.P.) issued by Los Angeles County-, the permit will expire in 1997. The applicant has requested a new C.U.P. to expand the landfill capacity by 29,4 million tons beyond its present permitted capacity of approximately three million tons. In addition to increasing the net capacity, the applicant is requesting an increase in tonnage per day (tpd) from 5,000 to 10,000 tpd. The proposed site service life would be 10.5 years at this rate of disposal. (The Regional Planning staff report recommends that the daily limit be maintained at 5,000 tpd.) The applicant is also requesting permission to include a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and a Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) on the site, accessed from Wolcott Way, and to conduct composting operations for sewage sludge and green waste. Special Projects, Engineering, and Community Development staff members have re-examined the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), and have prepared a second comment letter (attached) to the Regional Planning Commission. This letter reiterates the previously stated comments, and provides additional comments on the significant unmitigated visual and air quality impacts, and on groundwater contamination, traffic impacts, cumulative impacts, and on alternatives to the proposed landfill process and design, including policy and technology alternatives. Staff believes that additional air quality analysis is required, and that it would be appropriate to allocate not more than $8,000.00 to assist the Val Verde Civic Association in funding a consultant to perform an independent evaluation of the DEUrs (and technical appendices') air quality analysis and mitigation, and to devise additional mitigation measures or suggest studies as appropriate. The DEIR now states that air quality impacts are significant, and cannot be completely mitigated. Because the landfill is located directly upwind from Santa Clarita, air quality deterioration will negatively affect the city. Suggestions from an independent expert, if implemented, may help to reduce these impacts. RECOMMENDATION7. 1. - Receive report, and direct staff to present the attached letter and supporting oral testimony to the Regional Planning Commission at the public hearing on November 29, 1995. 2. Approve the appropriation of funds in the amount of $8,000.00 to Special Projects Account No. 01-4103-227 from the Contingency Reserve Account No. 01-4101-290 to pay for an air quality consultant to conduct independent review of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill Expansion DEIR, and to perform requested air quality impact studies. 1. Letter from City Manager to Regional Planning Commission 2. Staff Report of 8/22/95 RESOLUTION NO. 96-72 A RESOLUTION BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA CLARITA OPPOSING EXPANSION OF CHIQUITA CANYON LANDFILL IN THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY WHEREAS, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill is an existing Class III disposal facility located in the Santa Clarita Valley; and WHEREAS, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill operates under a conditional Use Permit issued by the County of Los Angeles; and WHEREAS, the Conditional Use Permit will expire in 1997; and WHEREAS, the landfill operators are currently seeking to expand the landfill's capacity by 29.4 million tons from the existing permitted 3 million tons and acreage from 154 acres to 337 acres; and WHEREAS, the proposed site service life is anticipated to be 10.5 years at maximum requested permitted disposal; and WHEREAS, the City of Santa Clarita has previously provided comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report to the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission regarding such issues as visual and air quality impacts, potential groundwater contamination, traffic impacts, and alternatives to the proposed landfill process and design, including policy and technical alternatives; and WHEREAS, the City of Santa Clarita has assisted the members of the Val Verde Civic Association by providing funds for an independent air quality analysis to be conducted. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Santa Clarita, California, does hereby determine: SECTION 1. That the expansion of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill beyond its existing conditional Use Permit is poor public policy, has potentially damaging environmental impacts particularly in the area of air quality and should be opposed. SECTION 2. That statements of opposition to the expansion by the Santa Clarita City Council shall be forwarded to the County of Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning and County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors. SECTION 3. That the City of Santa Clarita shall continue to actively encourage other jurisdictions, most notably the County of Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles, to place greater emphasis on alternatives to new and expanding landfills in urban and urbanizing areas. SECTION 4. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this resolution and certify this record to be a full, true, correct copy of the action taken. PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED this MAYOR ATTEST: CITY CLERK STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES )ss CITY OF SANTA CLARITA day of , 1996. I, Donna M. Grindev. City Clerk of the City of Santa Clarita, do hereby certify that the foregoing Resolution was duly adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Clarita at a regular meeting thereof, held on the day of , 1996 by the following vote of Council: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: CITY CLERK Council Members City of Santa Clarita City Hall 23920 West Valencia Boulevard Valencia, CA 91355 Dear Council Members: for U.S. Congress 251 District May 1 296 �LI .. PART OF 1 ii- -: L ,i MEETING ITEM NO 2 First of all, I want to thank you for placing the Chiquita Canyon landfill on your busy agenda. Despite its location outside of city boundaries, Chiquita Canyon is as close to the city as Elsmere Canyon and Chiquita's expansion could prove just as detrimental in terms of air and noise pollution and traffic congestion. For those reasons, Laidlaw's proposed expansion of the dump should be a matter of concern to the City of Santa Clarita. This City invested $8,000 to help the Val Verde Civic Association obtain an independ- ent air -pollution impact report on the requested expansion. For that, I commend the Council. That assistance was appropriate and it was consistent with the way the city ap- proached the Elsmere proposal. Now that this evaluation has revealed significantly greater risks than those revealed by Laidlaw, I would urge the Council to take the next logical step and register their opposi- tion to the expansion. Also, the Council should demand disclosure of two things to the L.A. Regional Planning Commission: (1) the existing impacts of the Chiquita landfill, in- cluding ground water contamination in Venture County; and (2) the probable impact of the proposed expansion. Failure to do this might put the City in a legally liable position. Local businesses may express concern that the costs of alternatives will pose undue economic hardships. But businesses that defend the landfill expansion are not taking into account the losses they'll suffer as the quality of life in the Santa Clarita Valley diminishes. City residents are already angry over depressed property values and they're increasingly aware of the health threats associated with existing waste management practices. Based on evidence of the environmental damage caused by urban landfills, this City Council has argued passionately, not only against the Elsmere siting, but for alternative sitings and waste management methods. I believe you all can apply that same passion and reasoning to this situation and I respectfully request that you do so. Sincerely, Diane Trautman l aid for by the Committee to Elect Diane Trautman PO Box 801084, Santa Clarita, CA 91380 Phone & Fax: 805-297-1121 * Email: diane1996@aol.com FEC# C00310334 * World Wide Web: httn://users.aol.com/dianel996/