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Chiquita Canyon Landfill operators offer relief program assistance
VOL. 10,
Pasadena police release video of officer-involved fatal shooting By Joe Taglieri
By City News Service
T
he operators of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, which has been repeatedly cited and warned for polluting the air, water and land in nearby neighborhoods, hosted community meetings Friday and Saturday to offer information about its relief program. The South Coast Air Quality Management District said it has received nearly 15,000 complaints about the landfill from nearby residents since January 2023. The pollution and problems produced at the landfill have worsened in recent months. The relief program initiated by the landfill operators was the topic of discussion at a Community Advisory Committee meeting in Castaic earlier this month. According to the landfill operators, 123 residents have received aid from the landfill relief fund over the past two months and $227,300 in aid has been distributed. The landfill operators said in a prepared statement the meetings were to help assist in the application process. “Funding is currently available for residents of the neighborhoods identified in the below map, which includes the neighborhoods of Val Verde, Live Oak, Hasley Hills, Hillcrest Parkway, Hasley Canyon and Stevenson Ranch,” according to a release from the landfill operators. “The scope of the program is under continuous evaluation. If you believe you are impacted, but do not live in an area identified on this map, please fill out the application.” A representative from the landfill was expected to attend the first session and be available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at the Val Verde Community Center
A leachate runoff channel flows on Nov. 2 at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. | Photo courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
at 30300 Arlington St. A representative was available to provide assistance at the second session from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Castaic Library, which is at 27971 Sloan Canyon Road. The sessions were available in English and Spanish. In April the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency expressed concerns about wastewater from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill reaching groundwater
sources, such as the Santa Clara River and wells near the landfill, and 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 were in violation of pumping untreated water containing leachate into waterways that empty into the Santa
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joet@beaconmedianews.com 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.
Officers stand over a fatally shot suspect, as seen in video from a police body camera. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Police Department
P
asadena police on Tuesday released video showing an officer shooting an allegedly armed suspect to death after the man fled during a traffic stop last month. The shooting occurred April 13 in the 700 block of Oak Knoll Circle, according to the Pasadena Police Department. Officers were investigating a suspicious vehicle parked facing the wrong direction on a nearby one-way street. When police asked the driver of the pick-up truck who was found to be unlicensed to exit the vehicle, he instead started truck and drove off, nearly hitting an officer. A brief pursuit followed, ending when the suspect crashed into a parked vehicle in the front yard of a home See Fatal shooting Page 27
USC law professor talks Trump verdict: ‘He could still run for president’ By City News Service
F
ollowing swift reaction from Southland politicians on the conviction of Donald Trump, a USC law professor Thursday shared her thoughts on the case — noting the former president could still run for the position come November. Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts, with jurors finding he falsified business records to cover up hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to silence her contentions during the 2016 presidential campaign that she had a sexual encounter with Trump about 10 years earlier. USC law professor Aya Gruber, who is an expert on criminal law and procedure, violence against women and critical theory, described the case as “politicized” for one where there was a lot of evidence for charges that are fairly See Trump Page 28