Start-Up of Recycling Plant Stuns Neighbors

After 20 years of living next door to methane gas leaks, dust clouds, noise and diesel fumes from a city dump, homeowners in Lake View Terrace were stunned Thursday to discover a new neighbor: A recycling plant with a 40-foot concrete grinder.

“If anybody thought we had it bad before, this is a nightmare!” said Phyllis Hines, who found out about the new plant when she asked county officials about the tractors and trucks stirring up dust next to the Lopez Canyon dump early this fall.

“Can you see almost 400 trucks from the landfill added to another 200 dump trucks a day heading to this plant, with all the noise and dust and fumes?” Hines asked.

She said she was shocked to learn county officials had approved the plant three years ago, apparently without the knowledge of most residents in the area. The plant is being built beside the dump on a hill just outside the Los Angeles city limits.

County regulations require that notice of public hearings be sent to neighbors within 500 feet of such a project, but no one lives that close to the site.

Homeowners in the area have long looked forward to the day when the Lopez Canyon Landfill would cease operating, once thought to be as soon as February. Now, in addition to discovering that city officials are trying to keep the dump open until 2001, work has begun on the recycling plant.

“They intend to install a huge tub-grinder that produces noise and dust,” said Woody Hastings, an aide to Councilman Richard Alarcon--whose district includes Lake View Terrace. “It appears they already have the permits they need.”

Other city officials said that because the facility is on county land, there is little they can do, other than control the truck traffic on nearby city streets.

An estimated 200 trucks per day, laden with broken concrete, asphalt and other building materials, are expected to feed the crusher between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on most working days, according to Ken Hayden, who is building the plant.

Hayden, owner of Sun Valley-based Hayden Brothers Engineering Contractors, says the plant won’t be as intrusive as some fear. He said the rock crusher will be enclosed and dust will be controlled by spraying water and possibly using a vacuum system.

“This is not another landfill,” Hayden said. “It’s a recycling facility. We’re saving things from going into landfills. I think a lot of people don’t understand that.”

Hayden said the crusher will be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest homes. He said he plans to erect a fence around the facility.

After a recent inspection, county officials said they found no zoning or permit violations. They said all required public hearings had been held in 1992, when the county issued Hayden a conditional-use permit. Although one person filed a written objection, no one showed up at the hearings, Hayden said.

However, neighbors said they were startled to see trucks and tractors carving away earth on a previously undisturbed hill near the landfill. Adding to their confusion were the trucks being loaded with earth from Hayden’s property that was then dumped on the landfill.

Drew Sones, assistant director at the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, explained that Hayen had offered some of the estimated 400,000 cubic yards of soil that he will excavate as cover for the trash dumped at the landfill.