While introducing his friend and fellow fifth-grader at Fernangeles School, Ricardo Bugarin pointed out that Alan Zambrano was only 10 but already had asthma. "I wonder if the polluted air in Sun Valley is the cause of this?" he mused.
Alan, a head shorter, was barely able to peek over the wood podium on the stage in Our Lady of the Holy Rosary's packed auditorium.
"Trash so close to the neighborhood is not a good idea," he said. "People around the area will get asthma, allergies and all kinds of respiratory diseases. I know it's not good to have asthma because I have it. I have trouble at night, and I have to use an inhaler a lot."
The boys spoke at a Feb. 15 evening meeting, which drew more than 400 One LA-IAF members of the community organization, along with representatives of city and state office holders plus business leaders to the northeast San Fernando Valley church.
The purpose of the grassroots session was twofold: to celebrate the community's four-year successful struggle to stop the expansion of the Bradley Landfill, and to rally the troops against the proposed use of the dump site as a trash transfer station which would receive, sort and move 7,000 tons of garbage per day.
Last December after nearly five years of trying, Waste Management, Inc., which owns and operates the Bradley Landfill, withdrew its state request to expand the huge garbage dump another 43 feet higher. (By law, the landfill must close this April.) But the nationwide company continues to press for the controversial transfer station.
So the refrain echoed throughout the evening by speaker after speaker was "But that's not the end of the story."
Celebrating, but ...
"We're celebrating that they're not going to expand because of the efforts of the community," Father Richard Zanotti, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, told The Tidings. "But the real issue is the transfer station. They've been talking about it being a 'recycling park.' That's the name they give to it. And we're saying, no, it's a garbage transfer station where they recover garbage, separate it out and then send it out to other sites and facilities.
"I've been congratulated: 'So you won! It's all over,'" said the Missionary of St. Charles Scalabrini priest. "I say, 'No, it's not.' There's still a big struggle ahead of us. And we want people to be aware of that. It's not over. But just keep your eyes on the community. The community when it's organized has a lot of power. And we don't want to be bullied by organized money, which is what Waste Management has."
A Power Point presentation explained that the proposed transfer station, officially known as a Material Recovery Facility, will hold "all kinds of garbage" for up to 48 hours. It reported how adding more tons of trash trucked in and out from Los Angeles County can cause many major environmental problems. These include a rise in truck traffic, which has already torn up local intersections and streets, more noise and diesel air pollution, foul odors and rodent and insect infestations.
The presentation noted that Sun Valley already has 30 landfills, transfer stations and solid waste yards, along with eight recycling centers and 30-plus auto dismantlers (junk yards). Adding daily 7,000 more tons to this mix will mean the semi-residential city of 46,000 will be accepting, at least temporarily, 2,550,000 more tons of trash every year.
L.A.'s dump
"We are the dump site of Los Angeles," declared Exiquio Ruiz, who has lived in Sun Valley for 33 years. "There is no other place in the world that has more dump sites than the valley. I'm not letting anybody dump trash anymore on my doorstep.
"I am tired of smelling what everybody else had for lunch the day before. I am tired of the fumes of the diesel trucks and the road conditions in our city of Sun Valley. I am tired for all this community is suffering."
One of Ruiz's three children has had asthma since birth, and he and his wife didn't know why. So he got involved in the community struggle through Holy Rosary Church. When he testified last March in Sacramento, what he learned "put fire in my teeth." He couldn't believe the number of landfills - 39 - that had operated in Sun Valley in recent years.
"I want our city to be like Encino and Porter Ranch, with cleaner streets, green parks for out kids and a better environment for our children," he said. "I want cleaner factories. And I also want our kids to have a chance for a better future and to raise their own families here"
At the end of the meeting, Father Zangotti --- representing One LA-IAF --- directly addressed Doug Corcoran, the district manager of Waste Management seated near the front of the school auditorium. The pastor asked the executive if he would commit to discuss future uses of the Bradley Landfill that would be in the best interest of the community.
"Well, the answer is yes," Corcoran said. "We want to be part of the community, with One LA and all the stakeholders in the community sitting with us and helping us. Because we want to do a better job." |