Residents in the Castaic and Val Verde area are scheduled to gather Friday near the Chiquita Canyon Landfill to raise awareness about the health hazards they face due to noxious odors emanating from the facility.
Residents, environmental justice advocates and Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo are expected to take a community tour near the landfill. They will also highlight a state law, AB 28, which was recently approved by the Assembly Resources Committee, that is intended to prevent such a crisis from happening to other families and children.
The tour is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Del Valle Regional Training Center, located on 28101 Chiquito Canyon Road in Castaic. Attendees will stop at a hilltop that overlooks the landfill site, followed by a tour of homes and a visit to an air quality monitoring station.
Since 2022, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill has generated thousands of odor complaints and has been targeted by lawsuits. An underground chemical reaction in a closed section of the landfill’s northwest corner has produced gases and leachate, which residents say has impacted their communities, homes and quality of life.
Residents have reported daily exposure to foul odors, experiencing symptoms such as migraine headaches, nausea, bloody noses, respiratory issues and even cardiac complications. The county alleges that local families have been forced to stay indoors, run their air conditioning and heat at all times of the day, and have been unable to enjoy outdoor activities or even use their yards — further impacting mental health and wellbeing, especially of children.
The county has also been assessing resident claims that the landfill has led to a cluster of cancer cases in the area.
While county officials have taken steps to help their constituents, residents say it isn’t enough and have urged the county to declare a local emergency.
“To date, the county has not proclaimed a local emergency primarily because doing so would not open access to additional funding resources, nor would it increase the intensive federal, state and local jurisdictional oversight that is already well underway,” Helen Chavez Garcia, communications director for Barger’s office, said in a statement.
“At this point, all possible regulatory and legal steps to resolve the situation are being implemented as quickly as possible,” she added. “The odors are caused by higher temperatures deep below the site that have also caused the production of gases and leachate that must be carefully handled. An intensive methodological and technology-driven approach is a proper means of responding to and resolving this situation.”
The county is working closely with local, state and federal agencies — such as the Environmental Protection Agency, CalEPA, CalRecycle, Southern California Air Quality Management District and the Regional Water Quality Control Board — to resolve the environmental hazard.
The county filed a lawsuit against Chiquita Canyon Landfill, LLC, and Waste Connections on Dec. 16, 2024. The county further seeks civil penalties against Waste Connections for causing the protracted environmental incident and public nuisance in neighboring communities.
On Thursday, Barger’s office announced the county filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit against the private operators.
The injunction seeks court intervention to mandate urgent relief measures, including relocation assistance and home-hardening for the most affected residents. According to county officials, this marks a significant legal step toward holding the landfill accountable for persistent and harmful odors that have impacted residents for at least three years.
“Filing this injunction is another critical step in my unrelenting work to advocate for residents who have endured far too long the noxious odors and disruptions caused by Chiquita Canyon Landfill,” L.A. County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said in a statement.
Barger, who represents the fifth county district, which encompasses Val Verde and Castaic, as well as the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley, added that she will continue fighting to ensure “accountability and relief.”
THE EGG TELLING THE HUMAN WHAT HIS LAW IS!
HATE GREED INCOMPETENCE STUPIDITY ARROGANTNESS
You have the uniform code & the code of ethnics that everybody violates..
Then I hear West Coast law group of California is paying these contractors to come out and do this stupid shit on a daily basis to me.
GPS should prove every bit of them stalking me for the last 3 years from Ventura boulevard at Cane’s restaurant opening over there. The one that showed me his ideas the one that tried to get me for a concealed weapon when his cocksucker in the pickup truck was in a Land Rover talking about how he had virtual land on the property.
These charges consist of FEDERAL AGGRAVATED HARASSMENT, FEDERAL AGGRAVATED STALKING, FEDERAL AGGRAVATED INTIMIDATION, FEDERAL AGGRAVATED BRUTALITY, FEDERAL AGGRAVATED CORRUPTION, and FEDERAL AGGRAVATED GREED & FEDERAL AGGRAVATED HATATRED, EVENTUALLY AGGRAVATED TAKING A BRIBE ! IN EVERY OFFICER THERE’S AN OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNT FOR EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD.
My perception says this is all due to Aryan brotherhood on the D block at San Mateo County Jail where all the murders and everything happened at. right under Christina Corpus deputy Lovejoy.
It’s like every cock sucking coward in the nation had to come out and cause as much shit as they could because they got to suck the man’s dick when they get there.
That’s the reason they have so many offshore bank accounts with everyone at that San Mateo County jail as well as the prison system as well and across the United States of America. Minimum 5 million to $500 billion and every offshore bank account cross the United States of America at every sheriff and police department fire department how everybody that was a celebrity is now dead and they paid every one of your corrupt trustees to go to work for you because how they were just to trainee.
Then you have this arrogant cop over here. On Sunday he comes over here and starts all this shit and has somebody called in from Santa Cruz to come down for an outreach program with a loaded fucking handgun under his goddamn arm both of them had loaded guns on him but yet they’re standing on fucking public property telling me where the fucking go right but when the sheriff’s department gets here they just let the motherfuckers run away right what an incompetent fucking agency. And this chief of police is HARBORING A FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE ( WILLIAM MORRELL ) while working for the Department with him smoking His crack cocaine and drinking his whiskey. No clue about vehicular homicide as a drunk mother fucker driving his car with a loaded FIREARM as attempted murder right why your FEDUALLY AGGRAVATED BANK ARMED ROBBERY. Just to get to me on public land you have to go through a public Bank Shopping Center.
Where at in the law does it state that law enforcement has a right to invade in the public business areas doing business with the public we’re at in the law does it state that you have a right to invade in the public?
Then you have them go into Google and tell them that I can’t complain and can’t have a comment on any part of Google or anywhere on the fucking internet anymore because my public rights have been violated by this piece of shit. But this is the kind of education you give your law enforcement in the community right.
In my intuitiveness leads me to believe that the Bakersfield Police Department send some Yahoo’s down here and had your Yahoo in this fucking Community Chase my dick around the whole time because how I caught the Bakersfield Police Department chief of police buying crack cocaine from someone in the fucking City and put it on a video for the Bakersfield Police Department of you and they’ve never done anything but yet they could send these jackasses down here though.
There’s $75 million in a offshore bank account
There’s 75 million different reasons for him to come out here and do this stupid shit everyday
5754 Lindero Canyon Rd, Westlake Village, CA 91362