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Senators hear testimony on Chiquita Canyon landfill fire; AB 28 would force earlier agency action when landfill heat spikes
Summary
Assemblymember Luz Rivas Schiavo told the Senate Environmental Quality Committee that AB 28 is designed to prevent another prolonged, burning‑landfill disaster after testimony describing years of smoke, illness and enforcement notices at the Chiquita Canyon site.
Assemblymember Luz Rivas Schiavo presented AB 28 to the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality, saying the burning Chiquita Canyon landfill in Los Angeles County has become a public‑health disaster and ‘‘should really never happen in any other community.’’
The bill would require corrective action when wellhead or subsurface temperatures exceed thresholds, bring CalRecycle into an early lead role coordinating local enforcement agencies and operators, give local enforcement agencies authority to pause landfill operations and to seek state emergency declarations, and create penalties and a fund to support relocation and medical/home hardening costs for impacted residents.
Schia vo and community witnesses described the scale of the event. ‘‘This is now the only place where a fire is still burning in LA County. We have a burning landfill at Chiquita Canyon that has been burning for 3 years now,’’ Schiavo said, recounting agency notices, imminent and substantial endangerment orders and hundreds of thousands of complaints.
Neighbor Elizabeth Jeffords told the committee she ‘‘started to struggle to breathe’’ after moving near the site and described chronic nosebleeds, nausea and vertigo. Jane Williams of California Communities Against Toxics described the episode as ‘‘an environmental catastrophe’’ and warned the problem could recur elsewhere without stronger state rules.
Republic Services and other waste industry witnesses opposed AB 28 as too prescriptive before regulators finish revising methane and temperature rules; industry witnesses urged letting CARB and CalRecycle finish ongoing rulemaking, noting the methane rule update is in progress.
Chair and members noted committee amendments that: move monitoring from flares to wellheads, require CalRecycle to set ancillary criteria beyond temperature (such as gas mixtures and moisture), allow CalRecycle and local enforcement to coordinate earlier, and narrow daily monitoring requirements.
A motion to pass AB 28 as amended to appropriations was made in committee and carried on the roll; the committee recorded a favorable vote and kept the measure on call pending final tally in floor preparations.
The committee discussion repeatedly emphasized balancing swift emergency authority, a single lead state coordinator, and keeping flexibility for regulators to adapt monitoring methods and thresholds as science and rulemaking evolve.
Residents urged quicker relocation planning and a funding mechanism paid by the landfill owner to avoid taxpayer‑funded buyouts; the bill would create a penalty fund, according to Schiavo.
