“Ding-dong! The Witch is dead / Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!/ Ding-dong! The Wicked Witch is dead / Wake up, you sleepy head / Rub your eyes, get out of bed / Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead.” – The Wizard of Oz The dump is dead. The wicked dump is dead! Rub your eyes, the air still stings, but wake up, the wicked dump is dead. Two years ago, I was appointed by Supervisor Kathryn Barger to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill Citizen’s Oversight Committee. At that time, the committee was essentially a pro-forma operation keeping tabs on occasional and rare landfill smells, while holding the landfill operator, Waste Connections, to promises it had made during landfill expansion dating back to 2017. This is a non-partisan, non-paid position, and, led by a very committed and professional leader, Mr. Bob Lewis, a group of six or seven citizens dutifully sat through monthly meetings to ensure basic landfill compliance and to hear out community complaints. It was sleepy and slow going at first. Within three months, the calm waters of the committee, landfill and neighbors got hit by a tsunami of smells. “Harmless odors,” they were labeled for months. As things progressed, blame was attributed to excess dimethyl sulfide, an obnoxious, stinky landfill compound, but not medically harmful. Bothersome, yes, but unhealthy in a medical sense, not so much. Landfill complaints continued to pile up and outrage began to grow. Indeed, Val Verde and surrounding areas began to stink noxiously and regularly, to the point where residents were forced to flee during peak smell periods to seek refuge, or face watering eyes, sore throats, nausea to the point of vomiting. Months turned into a year, and the Chiquita Landfill Oversight Committee became the pressure cooker we learned the landfill had become. Our small room at the Castaic library filled to the brim and overflowing with outraged locals. Barger eventually responded to which way the wind was blowing and assembled a far-reaching team of every air and water quality professional she could muster out of the county. Eventually, the state EPA and national EPA weighed in. It was late coming, and to the opinion and consternation of locals, ineffective at first, but over months that turned into two years, at least air quality data was collected and, finally, a most reluctant water board became aware of risks to our community ground water. “The wheels of government turn slowly,” Val Verde and Castaic residents learned firsthand. Patience wore thin – to the point where I feared for violence at our meetings, when suffering residents heard the same dry statistics about how many molecules of this or that supposedly “non-harmful” chemicals had been measured, along with dutiful roll call of how many more thousands of complaints had been registered that month with the Air Quality Management District. In the end, over 30,000 community complaints had been logged in, with 120-plus formal notices of non-compliance issued to Chiquita. Despite the outrage, and all the non-compliance notices, Chiquita continued receiving some 30% of L.A. County’s waste. We learned only 20% of trash dumped at Chiquita originated from Santa Clarita. Val Verde become L.A. County’s trash toilet of choice. Poor locals faced both traditional landfill stink, as well as what we eventually learned were noxious VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) originating from a chemical reaction deep, some 150 feet below the surface of the dump. This smoldering chemical fire of sorts originates from the very oldest section of the landfill, some 60 acres some 50-60 years old. Whatever was dumped down there happened before Waste Connections ever became involved, but certainly when the county was. Something triggered this reaction, and now, these VOCs spewed through fissures into the air into residents’ and animals’ eyes, lungs, skin and lives. During this past year, each meeting, resident after resident would take the stand speaking and crying of their hardships, failing health, and ruined lives. These stories are all too real. Things came to a head when, three months ago, a contentious meeting was held at Castaic Middle School, featuring Mike Garcia, Pilar Schiavo, Scott Wilk, Barger, and perhaps 20 armed law enforcement officers to keep a lid on an emotional firestorm. Garcia, Schiavo, Wilk, and the entire audience railed on Barger for two hours. I’m still amazed at Barger’s grace under pressure as she took it all in and kept her cool. And, by the end of that meeting, Kathryn’s position moved, and she promised strong, faster action, even closing the dump, if required. A few weeks ago, the county finally sued Waste Connections for its endless violations and for restitution to constituents. Just before New Year’s, Waste Connections threw in the towel, citing regulations and requirements too odious to continue operations. Through their corporate attorney, Waste Connections promised to continue what is, in truth, their substantial effort to contain the chemical reaction. We hope they do, for what continues to happen 150 feet below the surface isn’t going away anytime soon and may take years to tamp down. This is no easy nor inexpensive task. If followed through, Waste Connections may well spend every dollar they ever earned in their effort to put down a chemical reaction they themselves didn’t create. The entire thing is complex, with conflicting interests, too many victims and a county navigating a maze of loyalties and obligations to somehow knit everything together while attempting to keep a community safe, a needed landfill in operation, and everyone out of court. It may be an unpopular opinion at the moment, but I commend Barger for her efforts to hold the entire affair together. Waste Connections was too slow, too stingy to quickly respond. They lost the moral and PR battle. The landfill closed, we’ll hope for continued mitigation, while lawsuits fly like wasps out of a shaken nest. All this appears as a long-awaited victory for Val Verde, Castaic and the SCV as a whole. For now, at least the everyday new trash smell is gone. Cross fingers that Waste Connections follows through with the long-term chemical reaction mitigation. Let’s hope lawsuits bear fruit and long-suffering residents are compensated for suffering and health impairments. Local residents are the real heroes. They put up, but never shut up. Unsung heroes are Barger’s Citizen Oversight Committee members. These folks donated countless hours and days, pushing, prodding and cajoling all parties into motion. And it worked. Ding dong, the wicked dump is dead! Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board. The post Gary Horton | Ding Dong the Dump Is Closed appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.