A handful of residents shared how a “dream home” in either Castaic or Val Verde had become a nightmare – thanks to the ongoing pollution problems at Chiquita Canyon Landfill – at a news conference Friday inside Castaic Community AME Church.  As Castaic resident Darcy Stinson, a disab led veteran, talked about the “horror story” his neighborhood had become and described his battle with cancer, a 13-year-old boy who lives near the landfill started getting a nosebleed.  Instincts kicked in for Dr. Jasmeet Bains, a family and addiction specialist in Kern County, and one of a half-dozen legislators Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, invited to a landfill tour and news conference that was streamed online.  “I’m a doctor,” Bains, D-Bakersfield, called out, as she hustled away from the assemblage at the front of the church to help Micah Howse in the pews with a tissue, putting pressure on the bridge of his nose.   Along with headaches, sore throats and burning eyes, bloody noses had just been mentioned as a chronic problem in neighborhoods near the landfill.  Bains later said chronic nosebleeds can be linked to a number of health issues, but that’s also why it’s critical to make sure health concerns in this type of crisis are well-investigated.   Schiavo said she called the news conference Friday to get more resources behind the problems residents are facing, reiterating a claim she made Wednesday that Los Angeles County is not doing enough.  Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, speaks at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill news conference on March 14, 2025 in Val Verde, Calif. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Schiavo said at the press conference Friday that she had spoken with county supervisors and a majority have indicated they’d support a declaration for a state of emergency if L.A County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who chairs the board and oversees the Santa Clarita Valley, brought forth the motion.   Considering the subsurface reaction area was growing and Chiquita Canyon Landfill was no longer providing financial assistance to residents, Schiavo said she couldn’t see how the situation wasn’t an emergency. She also said everything that’s been done by the local, state and federal governments clearly has not stopped the reaction, so she didn’t see how the declaration could hurt.  Helen Chavez, spokeswoman for Barger, said Friday evening the supervisor’s office had not been invited to the news conference.   She shared a statement Friday evening via email on behalf of Barger:  “I am actively monitoring the ongoing situation at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill and remain vigilant about its impact on the surrounding community. In determining whether to declare a state of emergency, I continue to rely on the expertise and guidance of our county’s subject matter experts, who are working in close coordination with the county’s Office of Emergency Management and the state’s Office of Emergency Services,” she wrote. “Ensuring the well-being of affected residents remains my steady and unwavering focus.”  Also packed into the roughly 1,000 square feet of the 70-year-old neighborhood church on Lincoln Avenue were Assembly Majority Leader Cecillia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, Assembly members Sade Elhawary, D-Los Angeles, John Harabedian, D-Sierra Madre, Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, and Celeste Rodriguez, D-Sun Valley, who shared their reactions to the day’s events.  Schiavo and Harabedian had invited the group to tour the Eaton Fire aftermath in Harabedian’s district and then Chiquita Canyon Landfill on Friday.  Schiavo said the group was unable to arrive on a tour date that worked for officials from Waste Connections, which owns the landfill, so instead the group heard a briefing from the state-run task force overseeing all the landfill’s problems.  ”We all saw what just happened with the fires in L.A. The Army Corps of Engineers are in there clearing out properties,” Schiavo said Friday, comparing the response to the Eaton Fire to that of the ongoing fire beneath the surface of the landfill. “We could use some help from the Army Corps of Engineers. We can use moratoriums on the taxes that people are paying. I believe you may be able to get the transfer of your property tax, so that if you have to buy a home that’s more expensive, you can keep your old lower property tax rate. You can take a state of emergency to your bank and ask for mortgage relief if you had to move out and temporarily pay rent at a new home.”  The post Legislators, residents gather at Castaic church over landfill concerns   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less