Regulators say Chiquita Canyon has made 'no meaningful improvement' to odors

Environmental regulators are faulting Chiquita Canyon Landfill for making "no meaningful improvement" in reducing noxious odors emanating from the Castaic facility and have ordered operators to take additional steps to address the problem.

In a three-day public hearing, South Coast Air Quality District attorney Kathryn Roberts argued that Chiquita Canyon is operating under "crisis-like conditions" because its operators "chose to actively conceal" early signs of an underground landfill fire.

Now, the landfill staff is forced to implement emergency measures that are exacerbating odors, such as excavating and relocating buried trash to prevent landslides.

"Many of these actions actually have the adverse side effect of increasing odors in the immediate and short term even though they are considered necessary to curb the emergency situations occurring at the landfill," Roberts said at an Aug. 17 hearing.

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Since May 2022, garbage has been burning within a closed portion of Chiquita Canyon — Los Angeles County's second-largest landfill — due to a rare heat-producing chemical reaction, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But environmental regulators only became aware of the problem last year when an inspector from the local air district discovered white smoke and liquids escaping from the landfill's surface.

The air district had ordered Waste Connections, the owner and operator of Chiquita Canyon, in September 2023 to undertake a series of projects to mitigate odors and control the fiery reaction area.

Now, nearly a year later, the pungent odors persist, and have been reported in neighborhoods several miles away.

This year, the air district has received 13,000 odor complaints for Chiquita Canyon Landfill, up from 7,000 in 2023. The agency has issued about 200 violations in connection with the complaints.

For their part, Chiquita Canyon representatives argued there is no easy fix to extinguish the smoldering conditions affecting 30 acres of the 639-acre landfill. As the air district ordered, landfill workers have drilled and installed 220 new gas collection wells and 80 pumps to extract piping-hot landfill gases and leachate. They are also intended to relieve the pressure and heat building hundreds of feet underground.

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So far, there's been no significant decrease in temperatures inside the 30-acre reaction zone. However, the problem has not expanded to other portions of the landfill.

Many of the wells that the air district had ordered installed have not been drilled deep enough to capture smelly landfill gases, due to safety concerns.

"This is not uncommon in landfills experiencing elevated temperature conditions where the crews can run into issues such as heavily saturated waste," said Vidhya Viswanathan, an official with SCS Engineers. "You could have borehole collapses. We also have the risk of triggering pressurized leachate releases. And, so all of these come with their own safety concerns."

Roberts said that Chiquita Canyon was far behind schedule with the installation of a large impermeable cover, which was intended to suppress odors. Originally advertised as a 10-week project, the landfill now says it won't be completed until October.

The landfill has also brought more than 100 tanks to store millions of gallons of leachate, which contains benzene and other chemicals.

At times, the removal of hazardous liquid waste has gone awry. On Aug. 15, a worker overfilled a leachate storage tank, causing 3,000 gallons of rancid liquid waste to spill.

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The air district's hearing board, which decides enforcement matters, ordered Chiquita Canyon to expand its monitoring, limit excavation and use odor suppressants.

The air district's attorneys also called for the landfill to cease operations between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., citing unfavorable wind patterns that carried foul smells into nearby communities. But Chiquita Canyon representatives opposed those measures, saying it would cripple their operation.

"The district is attempting to essentially close the Chiquita Canyon Landfill through draconian limits on the landfill's waste intake which will have rippling and dramatic effects on the management of solid waste for Los Angeles County," said Megan Morgan, an attorney representing Waste Connections.

The hearing board is scheduled to hold another hearing on the operation restrictions and other conditions on Nov. 13-14.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.