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County officials defend Simi Valley landfill operations as LA fire debris shipments decline
Summary
After months of accepting ash and fire debris from the LA-area Eaton and Palisades fires, Ventura County staff, the Army Corps and Waste Management detailed handling, monitoring and ongoing inspections at the Simi Valley Landfill, saying inputs have dropped and regulatory checks remain in place.
Venura County and partner agencies told the Board of Supervisors on June 24 that procedures used to accept and dispose of debris from the January LA-area wildfires prioritized speed and public-safety protections, and that daily volumes delivered to the Simi Valley Landfill have dropped sharply from an April peak.
The county’s Resource Management Agency and Environmental Health Division explained that the landfill is operating under emergency waivers that temporarily modify permit conditions so the facility can accept out‑of‑county fire debris. Agency staff said waivers are submitted to CalRecycle and may be returned for revision if the state has concerns.
County environmental health manager Sean Debley said the local enforcement agency (LEA) raised inspection frequency at the landfill from monthly to weekly during the response and required Waste Management to provide weekly tonnage and special‑occurrence reports. “We modified the emergency waiver to reflect inclusion of LA County Fire Waste,” Debley said, noting the LEA must find that actions are protective of public health, safety and the environment before issuing waivers.
Representatives from Waste Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers described operations at the Simi Valley site. Waste Management said incoming loads are detarped, processed on a dedicated haul road and placed in lined disposal cells that are covered daily; it described water trucks, rumble strips and street sweepers used to limit dust and material leaving the facility. Colonel Eric Swenson, leading the Corps’ debris removal mission for FEMA and the state, said crews use wet‑loading and tarping to control dust and that the Corps has performed on‑site sorting so clean metals and concrete can be recycled rather than landfilled.
Air monitoring conducted by the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) was presented. APCD executive officer Ali Hassemi said the district installed two temporary beta‑attenuation PM2.5 monitors near the landfill entrance and compared readings to a permanent monitor; APCD staff reported no significant local increases in PM2.5 attributable to landfill activity. Hassemi said the temporary monitors’ real‑time data are published on public maps.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Santa Ana Water Board — through the county’s presentation — described permitting and groundwater monitoring requirements for municipal landfills, and said Simi Valley has a composite liner and a monitoring program that includes semi‑annual groundwater sampling, reporting to the state, and ongoing construction oversight during cell work. The county and Waste Management said monitoring results to date show no evidence of liner failure or groundwater contamination related to the debris program.
Participants stressed the regional nature of debris disposal. Debley said multiple landfills in Southern California accepted material; Simi Valley accepted large daily tonnages during the April peak and is now receiving roughly a fraction of that daily amount. Swenson said the Corps had removed fire debris from more than 9,100 properties across LA‑county impacted areas and expected state and local abatement actions to continue for properties that opted out or failed to remove debris themselves.
Public commenters expressed continuing concern and asked for expanded testing and independent analysis. Several speakers urged county leaders to require more thorough sampling of debris and expanded air and soil monitoring; a coalition of academic researchers said they had deployed speciation sampling equipment capable of identifying metals and other constituents beyond PM2.5. County staff said the Corps, APCD and the regional water board have jurisdictional roles for different aspects of sampling and that the landfill is regulated by multiple agencies.
The Board received the presentations and the materials; Board members thanked staff and federal partners for the response and said they wanted continued transparency and monitoring updates.
Ending note: County and federal presenters said volumes headed to Simi Valley have fallen from the April peak, weekly LEA inspections remain in place, and the APCD’s temporary PM2.5 monitors show readings comparable to the permanent background monitor; they advised the board that a transition back to normal permit processes will be considered once emergency waivers expire.
