SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency is expressing concerns Tuesday about wastewater from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill reaching groundwater sources, such as the Santa Clara River and wells near the landfill, and has sent a letter to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board outlining the impacts of the conditions at the landfill.
The Water Quality Control Board sent a letter to the landfill operators informing them they are in violation of pumping untreated water containing leachate into waterways that empty into the Santa Clara River. The letter is dated April 9.
The next day, the SCV Water Agency, which maintains water supply wells in the area, some about 3,000 feet from the landfill, asked the Water Quality Control Board to investigate the impacts on the groundwater from the landfill.
In March, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill operators were denied a request to expand, the latest in a series of setbacks for the landfill that has been producing toxic chemicals and polluting the air, water and land on site and in neighboring communities for months.
The Water Quality Control Board denied the landfill’s request to expand operations in its East Canyon Project. The landfill applied for the expansion on Jan. 4, 2022. The water control board sent a letter dated March 1 informing the operators of the rejection.
Chiquita Canyon Landfill requested to expand the facility at cells 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in the East Canyon area and northeast of the cells in current use.
The landfill operators have been cited by the Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Toxic Substance Control recently for violations.
The Department of Toxic Substance Control cited the operators on Feb. 21 for transporting toxic waste pumped from soil from the landfill to a facility in Gardena not permitted to accept it.
The EPA issued a statement in February saying the landfill presents an “imminent and substantial endangerment” to air and water pollution.
In response to the violations and from thousands of complaints from residents who live near the landfill, LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger sent a letter to the operators asking to provide relocation assistance for those affected by the pollution coming from the landfill. She also asked the landfill operators to provide compensation for nearby residents to make improvements to their homes because of the pollution. Furthermore, she set up a service to help nearby residents pay for high utility bills resulting from the air pollution the landfill created.
The landfill operators agreed to Barger’s requests, and they launched a website for residents to apply for relocation or other relief.
“I am pleased Chiquita Canyon Landfill has launched their relocation relief program,” Barger said in a statement Monday. “The communities impacted by the landfill’s odors deserve support that is responsive to their needs. This is a start.”
The State Water Board, in its letter to the landfill, stated because of an increased temperature event, a rise in volumes of leachate is being generated and is overwhelming the landfill’s containment systems.
“On Oct. 3, 2023, Los Angeles Water Board staff conducted an inspection at the Landfill during which a leachate seep was observed at the northwestern portion of Main Canyon that flowed from the edge of the landfill to a concrete V-ditch. The V-ditch widens to a flat-bottomed ditch on its course to the stormwater debris basin at the front of the landfill. Chiquita Canyon, LLC placed several soil berms along the flat-bottomed ditch to capture and pump off the leachate before it reached the debris basin. On Nov. 2, 2023, a joint inspection was conducted by multiple regulatory agencies during which Los Angeles Water Board staff observed that the leachate seep was still occurring at the landfill,” according to the letter from the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board.