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The following commentary is submitted by members of Citizens for Chiquita Canyon Landfill Compliance.

 

The Chiquita Canyon Landfill is in the final stages of seeking approval for an expansion, so you may have been hearing about it a lot lately or for the first time. As the upcoming public hearing is Wednesday March 1st, 6pm at Rancho Pico Junior High School [ 26250 Valencia Blvd. Stevenson Ranch 91381] the landfill has shifted into overdrive to get as many positive messages out there as they possibly can. However, there is one message which we should all pay very close attention to; how the nearby Sunshine Canyon Landfill went through a similar expansion that has impacted the nearby communities of Granada Hills and Sylmar.

(Full commentary below)

[Open .pdf in new window]

 

 

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22 Comments

  1. Brian Wood says:

    I truly sympathize with the people living around the Chiquita Landfill, but let’s keep in mind that landfill was there long before most of the nearby homes and commercial buildings were put in place. Noting that NL&F is planning a huge development across the highway (not sure it’s correct that it’s the largest in the US), is silly. You’re arguing to close a landfill (or at least stop it’s expansion) because new building around it? And, your write-up would have more impact if it didn’t cite incorrect information. Even when expanded to 12,000 tons/day, Chiquita would not match the largest in the US. Newton County Landfill in Georgia (to name one) is over 20,000 tons/day.

    Let’s step back and look logically at this. If we truly want to shut down Chiquita, where would we relocate operations? It is truly one of the largest in California. What other location would be better for dumping this much waste? I don’t like it in my backyard either (as a resident of SCV), but it’s been in-service since 1972. It’s not like it just sprang up over the past year and is causing problems. Seriously, instead of building new schools, housing, and commercial properties nearby, how about considering doing the new development elsewhere?

  2. Brian Wood says:

    I truly sympathize with the people living around the Chiquita Landfill, but let’s keep in mind that landfill was there long before many of the nearby homes and most of the commercial buildings were put in place. Noting that NL&F is planning a huge development across the highway (not sure it’s correct that it’s the largest in the US), is silly. You’re arguing to close a landfill (or at least stop it’s expansion) because new building around it?

    And, your write-up would have more impact if it didn’t cite incorrect information. Even when expanded to 12,000 tons/day, Chiquita would not match the largest in the US. Newton County Landfill in Georgia (to name one) is over 20,000 tons/day.

    Let’s step back and look logically at this. If we truly want to shut down Chiquita (and I’m not saying we shouldn’t), where would we relocate operations? It is truly one of the largest in California. What other location would be better for dumping this much waste? I don’t like it in my backyard either (as a resident of SCV), but it’s been in-service since 1972. It’s not like it just sprang up over the past year and is causing problems. Seriously, instead of building new schools, housing, and commercial properties nearby, how about considering doing the new development elsewhere?

    If we really want to considering shutting down Chiquita, we have to at least have a viable alternative solution for the waste they currently handle today.

    • Agree. Alternative, would be to stop building. In my opinion, Santa Clarita wasn’t designed to handle the population. We are at our limit. Our roads can’t handle the amount of traffic. Bouquet canyon wasn’t designed for the amount of commute traffic and so on. I would hate to see how Santa Clarita would be able to handle another ’94 earthquake. We will be screwed since our roads weren’t designed for extreme population. I think another recommendation would be to fire the people who designed our city. Just my opinion anyways. :)

    • Eric Gaudio says:

      thanks for the information on newton county landfill. Who said shut down, i didn’t. i said recycle. maybe turn some of it into petroleum. but in my opinion there should be a counter balance to our pile of mess. so realistically its just promotion of less waste, and some type of machine to change our size of waste would be practical.

  3. Abigail says:

    We do – Misquite Regional Landfill that we PAID for and sits empty. This is all about money staying in the county and has nothing to do with not having a place to send the trash. Check it out….

  4. Randy Rodi says:

    Stop building houses holy hell

  5. The people should have free cooking gas from the land fill.

  6. Dennis Goff says:

    Shut down a landfill because you want to build hundreds of additional trash producing homes . . . Makes you go . . . Huh?

  7. Yep, development for the sake of development – oh yeah, and money. Give a listen to the Eagles song “Last Resort”. While you listen, understand that its about California. Particular attention to the last line. “Kiss it goodbye”.
    Sadly, it’s not just CA Dennis.

  8. Blake Frye says:

    Surely a new freeway will be built exclusively for this housing development that connects to the 118 and 5/14 interchange…

  9. Abigail says:

    There is a new freeway as part of the master plan proposal that goes behind (to the west) Stevenson Ranch and Westranch to the 126 highway. I think it is at the west side of Pico out to the 126 highway, but not sure. When those towns try to fight it and expect support from people in Castaic they may not feel as obliged to step up and fight for them. It certainly would make a drive easier for many in Castaic to the valley at the cost of leveling many hills and mountain areas – their view! This landfill expansion is part of a bigger plan and people had better wake up FAST and get on board or they will find their own interests bulldozed over too.

  10. waterwatcher says:

    Great article, but too bad it didn’t get published BEFORE the hearing so that people would know to attend and voice their concerns.

    Yeah, isn’t that just like Newhall Land to quickly try to get their housing tract approved BEFORE the landfill so that people there wouldn’t know they were living right across from one. With the new heights allowed, will they all be looking at it as well as smelling it? What a surprise they will get if they buy over there.

    There are other places for this garbage to go, and we all should be doing a lot better job at reduce, reuse, recycle, both for our air quality and water quality.

    AND for, anyone that missed this hearing, there will be another one downtown at Regional Planning on April 19th.

    • SCVNews.com says:

      we didn’t receive it until a couple of hours before the hearing. (Note: we are not in the habit of rushing things like that. We need at least 48 hours.)

  11. SCVNews.com says:

    Looks like the host of c4cclc.com was CLOUDFLARE.COM — contact them and let us know what you find out

  12. Steve says:

    The hearing April 19th will have a video feed in Santa Clarita. The place is still to be determined. But, if you are interested in being heard you can show up to that location. The more people that are heard and show up, the harder it will be for them to ignore the people and favor the big money in their decision.

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