About four years after toxic gases and liquids from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic prompted health concerns among nearby residents and an environmental review by the federal government, state auditors said Tuesday that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health failed to properly address harmful effects on communities surrounding the landfill.<\/p>\n
The landfill has been the focus of an environmental and public health controversy in Los Angeles County since 2022, when neighbors began complaining about foul odors and related symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, eye, nose and throat irritation, as well as mental health concerns. <\/p>\n
The Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> found in 2024 that the landfill, owned by Waste Connections, violated its operating permit by emitting high levels of benzene and other volatile organic compounds, which are known to contribute to smog and ozone formation that can damage the lungs. <\/p>\n Despite its responsibility to respond to public health hazards linked to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, Los Angeles County showed “shortcomings” from the beginning by failing to consistently review air-quality information near the landfill and adequately track residents’ health conditions, according to a report by the California State Auditor<\/a>. <\/p>\n “We nonetheless could not verify that LADPH had always reviewed specific air quality information, and it did not communicate with the public about specific levels of chemicals in the air,” the audit said. <\/p>\n The report also noted that the county stopped collecting data on affected residents’ health at the end of 2024 and no longer has up-to-date information on their health conditions.<\/p>\n “As a result, LADPH does not have a complete or current understanding of residents’ symptoms,” the report said. <\/p>\n The auditor also found that LADPH took nearly two years to direct the landfill operator to provide funding for temporary relocation assistance for affected residents and could not provide a sufficient explanation for the delay. That’s around the same time Los Angeles County sued the owner of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, alleging it failed to control the chemical reaction and resulting emissions and odors. <\/p>\n In response to the report, the department called the findings “disappointing,” saying it has been “proactive in addressing the health concerns” of nearby communities. <\/a><\/p>\n “Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said in a letter to the state auditor<\/a> that LADPH has always validated residents’ reports of headaches, respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, stress and serious quality-of-life impacts associated with persistent odors. LADPH recognized that hydrogen sulfide and other odorous compounds can cause short-term symptoms at levels below health-based screening values and consistently communicated that information to the community.” <\/a><\/p>\n The Chiquita Canyon Landfill stopped accepting waste on Jan. 1, 2025. The operator, Chiquita Canyon, LLC, remains responsible for managing the site, closure activities and mitigation of the underground reaction as EPA-directed stabilization work continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About four years after toxic gases and liquids from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic prompted health concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5139,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-480049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-castaic","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}