Chiquita Canyon Landfill still isn't fixing odor issues, regulators say

Despite pressure from neighbors and public officials, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic continues to plague the surrounding area with terrible odors, prompting regulators to call for more to be done.

A three-day South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing earlier this month was full of criticism of the landfill operators’ inability to limit the smells reaching neighbors, noting that there has so far been “no meaningful improvement,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

In fact, efforts to combat a fire beneath the surface of the landfill — the second-largest in L.A. County — require “emergency measures that are exacerbating odors, such as excavating and relocating buried trash to prevent landslides,” the Times reports.

“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,” said Kathryn Roberts, attorney for the South Coast AQMD.

In a news release, the AQMD board directed landfill operators to make changes, including meeting “more than two dozen conditions that will improve leachate collection, add preventative maintenance and inspections, mitigate odors associated with excavation activities, and require additional air monitoring.”

The issue is expected to be discussed again during another hearing in November.

The AQMD regulators join a chorus of critics targeting the landfill and its odors.

The landfill’s neighbors have filed a lawsuit alleging toxic fumes are harming them, and the Environmental Protection Agency and local elected officials have also raised concerns.