Not the Right Spot to Begin With

Water supply and trash disposal are two critical problems facing Southern California. They have come into sharp conflict over the proposal of a subsidiary of Browning-Ferris Industries to expand its Azusa landfill from a current capacity of 1,500 tons a day to 6,000 tons, ultimately holding a maximum of 40 million tons. The problem is that the landfill is located over the San Gabriel Basin aquifer that provides virtually all the water for 1 million area residents.

BFI claims that the landfill will be so elaborately protected that there will be no danger of leakage into the ground-water supply, but knowledgeable and responsible opponents claim that all landfill liners ultimately fail. In this case, the aquifer is too valuable to warrant any risk. When the State Water Resources Control Board meets Tuesday, it should reject the BFI proposal.

This has been a particularly intense battle involving heavy lobbying of the five-member board. The landfill fight is led by William D. Ruckelshaus, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and now chair-man of Browning-Ferris Industries. The opposition includes the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster, an agency that administers the aquifer; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; the state Department of Water Resources; the state Department of Health Services, and the Environmental Defense Fund.

The expansion earlier was approved by the regional water quality control board on a vote of 4-3, but rejected by the state board 3-1 in August. The state body delayed final action in the hope that BFI and opponents could work out a compromise.

The San Gabriel Basin already is a federal Superfund site because of past contamination from industrial solvents. In an attempt to sell the project, Ruckelshaus volunteered to build three water treatment plants costing up to $20 million, including one on the site of the Azusa project, to handle any potential contamination from the landfill. Superficially, it was an appealing offer, but Linn Magoffin, chairman of the water basin, said the proposal ducks the issue. The plants would cleanse water of volatile organic chemicals but not dissolved solids and chlorides that may be coming from the present, unlined landfill, he said. BFI and the local water board officials say they have detected no leaking from the existing dump.

For all the attention given to water imported to the area, ground-water basins are basic to the supply in both Los Angeles and Orange counties. They are worthy of extraordinary protection. The best protection against potential leakage from a new landfill is not to build it in the first place.