I have lived in California for 33 years, and I have discovered that our local television news is interested only in shock and sexy reporting. Every day, the news reports on murders, robberies, automobile accidents, celebrities’ affairs and politicians’ shortcomings. How often do you hear about the local, day-to-day things that affect the people living right here? I know I am not finding a news station that reports what is happening at our Town Council meetings. So, I ask myself, why? It is not sexy enough.

The greater area of the Santa Clarita Valley is looking at a life-changing plan for all of the people who live, work, shop and play here. What appears to have once been a localized problem is really not any more. Chiquita Canyon Landfill is proposing to expand to such a massive size that most of the rest of the landfills in the nation will pale in comparison. Did anyone in the greater Santa Clarita Valley sign up to have their hometown be known as the country’s largest landfill? I tend to think not. I know I didn’t.

Now I find this to be a shocking event, and I can’t seem to understand why news stations like KTLA, KABC, KNBC and KCBS aren’t plastering this proposed expansion all over their broadcasts. Then it dawned on me: It is not sexy enough. Trash is not sexy.

Just a short time ago, I remember hearing all about the big uproar in Malibu over the tainted ground at a local high school. They found the soil was contaminated with PCBs and other carcinogens. Well, that was plastered all over every news station. The reporters came out in great numbers and stood in front of this high school, trying to interview parents. Why? Malibu has celebrities. Some of the children at this school are children of celebrities, and that makes it sexy enough to put on the news.

It was determined by all who watched these newscasts that this was not acceptable. Now you do not hear about it, so what happened? It was simple.

They took the contaminated soil and sent it to Chiquita Canyon Landfill.

Now the greater Santa Clarita Valley is home to this soil. Did you know that? I didn’t.

About Malibu High’s Contamination: http://www.laweekly.com/2014-03-20/news/cancer-scare-at-malibu-high-turns-messy/

Report of Malibu High’s Clean Up: http://fipcontractors.smmusd.org/Data/Sites/6/documents/malibupublicnotice/removalactioncompletionreport-1.pdf

“All excavated pesticide- and/or PCB-affected soils were transported to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic, California. A total of 48 truckloads of pesticide- and/or PCB-affected soil were removed from the Site and transported to this landfill. Copies of soil shipping documents, including the waste profile, are provided in Appendix C.”

Two of our children’s schools are less than a mile and a mile and a half away from Chiquita Canyon Landfill. One of the schools is Santa Clarita Valley International, with around 1,000 students. These students come from all over the valley, not just Castaic. Does this mean the children of the greater Santa Clarita Valley are not as important or valuable as the children of the celebrities in Malibu? I guess so.

Before you decide to support the Chiquita Canyon Landfill expansion, I suggest you do some homework on what exactly has been going into this landfill. This is just one of many examples I found. It is not just the trash from under your sink here in the valley. It comes from all over Southern California. As a matter of fact, more than 80 percent of what goes in that landfill does not come from the Santa Clarita Valley, and it is not just your dinner scraps. But again, our trash problem is not sexy enough to make the news. You will not hear about it on the 5 o’clock news until it is too late and someone dies or a group of our teachers gets sick with cancer.

If you have taken the time to read this commentary, you can no longer claim you didn’t know. Now you are part of the informed. Do your research and find out what I did. Trash is not sexy.

Abigail DeSesa is a 15 year resident of Castaic, 2014 valedictorian of College of the Canyons, and a volunteer turtle and tortoise rescuer.