In this newsletter:
- Feature: The deepening disaster of Chiquita Canyon landfill
- AI art, hold the slop
- Take a peek at the P22 sculpture headed for Griffith Park
- Hollywood’s congressional rep fights for a federal film tax credit
- LA takes steps to help small businesses facing rent hikes
The Deepening Landfill Disaster in Northern L.A. County
by Alexandra Applegate
When Val Verde community leader Jennifer Elkins drove me around the quiet small town earlier this summer, she pointed out the playground in her yard where she refuses to let her children play. That’s because she worries they’ll get sick from the toxic fumes emanating from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill nearby.
“We used to spend our weekends up here barbecuing with our neighbors, going to birthday parties,” Elkins says. “We used to, just in the middle of summer for no reason at all, we would rent one of those big water slides and let all the kids play on it outside. And now I'm having to tell my seven-year-old, ‘You can't go outside and play,’ and he doesn't understand.”
Three years ago, a closed section of the landfill started heating up. At one point, temperatures peaked at 260 degrees — double the standard set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The scorching heat started burning waste and spewing toxic gases like carbon monoxide and benzene into nearby Val Verde, a working-class community of about 3,000 residents. Leachate, which is basically trash juice, was seen exploding into the air like a geyser.
Lawyer Oshea Orchid and Val Verde leader Jennifer Elkins stand in front of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. Photo by Alexandra Applegate/KCRW
I have followed this disaster on and off for years as it went from bad to very, very bad, with no clear fix. When I found out that the landfill closed last year and is now installing a thick cover over the entire site to help mitigate the fumes, I wanted to know what Val Verde residents thought. Were they hopeful for some relief?
In a word: no.
“It’s like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole,” Elkins says. “It’s too little, too late, and not enough is happening quickly enough.”
Elkins says the town has become unrecognizable since the chemical reaction bubbled to the surface in 2023. No one goes to movie nights or concerts at the park anymore. The town’s youth sports teams can’t recruit any kids. Many homes sit empty. Even Val Verde’s 100th anniversary parade was canceled because the smell got too bad.
Jennifer Elkins says her children’s playground and trampoline have gone unused for years because she won’t let her kids play outside. Photo by Alexandra Applegate/KCRW
“It’s one of the worst environmental disasters in California history, and probably in the Western United States, that’s going on right now,” says State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, who represents the area.
That’s why Schiavo sponsored a bill this year to compensate victims. The proposed law, AB 28, would fine landfills $100,000 a day if their temperatures exceeded 131 degrees. That money would be used to create a community fund to help nearby residents relocate. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill this month, it would take effect in January.
So some financial help may be on the way to Val Verde. But to many residents, the damage has already been done.
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Locals say ever since the reaction started sending waves of odors and fumes into the town, they’re constantly sick, afflicted by nausea, headaches, unexplained hives, skin conditions, and gushing nosebleeds. Elkins says 12 people on her street alone — the neighborhood closest to the landfill — have been diagnosed with cancer in the last two years.
“It’s terrifying. I don’t even want to open my windows,” Elkins says. “What’s going to happen if I do? Am I going to have headaches for the rest of my life? Are my kids going to get cancer?”
It’s difficult to prove that the fumes from the garbage burning underneath the landfill are the cause of any one illness. But locals claim it can’t be a coincidence when so many of their neighbors are falling sick.
The landfill’s operators have acknowledged that the odors can cause “short-term discomfort.” But they point to LA County studies from 2024 that found no “anticipated long-term health impacts.”
Meanwhile, the people of Val Verde have adapted to the circumstances. Some have moved their kids to different school districts. Others wear masks, like they did during the pandemic. After being woken up in the middle of the night by the fumes, one family says they slept in the parking lot of a Walmart further from the landfill.
And Val Verde residents have put their hope in the new proposed law and in a stack of class action and county lawsuits. Until help arrives, residents are still suffering under the fumes.
