Communities of North Whittier, Avocado Heights, Gladstone, Pelesier Place lose the battle
“We feel good. It was the appropriate thing to do,” said Chuck Boehmke, departmental engineer for solid waste for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.
The tense, 3-2 vote by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission removed a major hurdle for the waste agency. Boehmke said his first order of business Tuesday would be to submit a modification of the permit with the county’s Department of Health Services. The state’s Cal-Recycle would then most likely approve the change, he said.
“Their vote confirms our position to have a facility to serve the public,” he said.
But longtime landfill and MRF opponent, Marilyn Kamimura, felt defeated after the vote. “I couldn’t help but cry,” she said.
Of the 26 speakers at the meeting, 20 were listed in opposition and six were in favor of lifting peak hour restrictions to the facility.
“The facility will change from recycling a select source of clean material to processing 4,400 tons of raw garbage a day. The net effect on the local communities has yet to be seen,” testified Don Moss, a nearby resident.
Solid waste engineers from the Sanitation Districts, operators of the twin
Starting Nov. 1, garbage trucks will no longer go up to the landfill but rather, to the MRF. Its capacity will increase from 150 tons per day to a maximum of 4,400 tons per day, according to Ray Tremblay of the Sanitation Districts.
The county said the low operating capacity at the 8-year-old MRF is due in part to competition with private landfills and MRFs, such as the one run by Athens Disposal on Valley Boulevard. If the use restrictions were removed, the Sanitation Districts facility would be able to acquire more solid waste contracts.
Residents of North Whittier, Avocado Heights, Gladstone and other small neighborhoods within about a mile of the MRF, said lifting the ban on trash trucks from 6 a.m. To 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. To 7 p.m. will increase noise, dust, diesel emissions and traffic in and around their communities.
However, Tremblay said traffic will actually decrease. The total trucks going to the landfill and the MRF equals 7,000 trips a day at maximum usage. “We will bring that down to under 3,000 trips per day,” he told the panel.
Those in favor of the expanded hours mostly included those from the trash industry. Many said if they had to dump their loads elsewhere, they would probably pay higher tipping fees, because the county Sanitation Districts have kept landfill fees low.