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LA County urged to look into fears that Chiquita Canyon landfill caused cancer
Liquid collects on top of a plastic tarp in Chiquita Canyon landfill in Castaic.
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Courtesy the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Topline:
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer sent a letter Thursday asking the county to evaluate residents' fears that living near the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic has led to a cluster of cancer cases.
Why now: They sent the request to the county’s Cancer Surveillance Program after legislators and community members revived calls for Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency at the landfill.
A closer look at the complaints: The lawmakers, including Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo and Representative Mike Garcia, said in a letter that seven people living close to the landfill in the Val Verde neighborhood had been diagnosed with cancer in the past six years. They said four of those diagnoses were made in the past year.
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The backstory: The landfill has long been a point of contention. Over the summer, the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s hearing board ordered the landfill to mitigate odors and monitor air quality after receiving more than 20,000 complaints.
Go deeper:
EPA orders Chiquita Canyon Landfill to fix its odor problem
Chiquita Canyon Landfill gets over 20,000 odor complaints — and new orders to fix them
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