3 New Options Would Keep Lopez Landfill in Operation : Sanitation: Rather than close the dump, officials’ ideas include reducing use of facility, or gradually phasing it out.

With the Los Angeles City Council nearing a much-anticipated decision on the future of the Lopez Canyon Landfill, sanitation officials offered three new options Monday to closing the dump when its operating permit expires in February.

Two options are to close the landfill either in February, 1996, or February, 1997, to all but trash generated in the east San Fernando Valley. The third option is to gradually phase out the use of the landfill over the next five years.

Lopez Canyon, the only city-owned landfill, is situated in Lake View Terrace and takes in about 80% of the city’s trash.

Previously, sanitation officials recommended extending the life of the landfill until 2001, citing an analysis that said the city would save $54 million over the cost of hauling the city’s trash to privately run dumps.

But the proposal raised protests from lawmakers representing Lake View Terrace and landfill neighbors who were promised in 1991 that the dump would close in 1996.

The new options were proposed Monday at a meeting of the city’s Board of Public Works. The board, however, took no action, pending a cost analysis of each of the three new options. The analysis is due Friday.

The new options are seen as compromise alternatives aimed at appeasing angry Lake View Terrace residents who have lived for years with the noise and odors of the landfill, as well as city officials worried about adopting the most cost-efficient option.

Drew Sones, assistant director of the city Bureau of Sanitation, said the new options were proposed following discussion with the Board of Public Works, which has been wrestling with the Lopez Canyon controversy for years.

Sones said the options to accept only trash from the East Valley were proposed because, many years ago, Lopez Canyon served only the East Valley while other landfills served the rest of the city. Eventually, the other city dumps closed, leaving Lopez Canyon to serve the entire city, he said.

But by taking trash only from the East Valley, the city would dramatically reduce the use of Lopez Canyon. The East Valley generates about 800 tons, or 22%, of the 3,700 tons of trash the city puts into Lopez Canyon each day, Sones said.

The City Council is scheduled today to discuss a recycling plan that includes options for closing Lopez Canyon. However, city officials say it is unlikely that the council will use the occasion to make a final decision on the landfill.

Despite the Bureau of Sanitation’s attempt to provide compromise alternatives, landfill opponents say they will not accept anything less than closing the dump when its operating permit expires in February.

“Clearly, what the Bureau of Sanitation is doing is trying to confuse the issue and delay the process to push the city in a corner with no other option but to extend the life of the landfill,” said Councilman Richard Alarcon, a longtime dump opponent who represents the Lake View Terrace area.

He said extending the life of the landfill past the permit deadline would break a promise the city made in 1991 when officials adopted the last extension and promised to seek no further extensions.

Roger Klemm, a member of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., said he and other residents near the landfill will not be appeased by any of the alternatives because they don’t trust the city to keep its promises anymore.

“If the bureau and/or the city had any credibility with the community, we might believe them, but every time we turn around we feel like we get screwed,” he said.