Reader Profile: Khalil Gharios

“There’s no dull moment in the solid waste business at all,” notes Khalil Gharios. With nearly four million Los Angeles, CA, residents for whom Gharios and his staff at LA Sanitation (LASAN) provide services, one can appreciate his sentiments. LASAN encompasses wastewater, stormwater, solid waste management, livability, and environmental quality. Gharios is the solid resources division director and oversees efforts in maintaining five closed landfills, four of which have been converted to partial or full beneficial reuse. Gharios also manages a large capacity waste transfer station and a large mulching and compost operation. In 2017, LASAN was recognized by SWANA with a bronze award in landfill redevelopment excellence. In 1996, the political climate and community protests forced the closing of the Lopez Canyon Landfill before it reached maximum capacity. LASAN staff worked with a special committee that led to its repurposing. Today, the Lopez Canyon Environmental Education Center (LCEEC) offers schools and the community the opportunity to explore rain harvesting, low water landscaping, backyard gardening, and free backyard composting workshops. The LCEEC also serves as a composting site, offering mulch and compost to the community as well as providing long-term management of horse manure at residential horse properties. Other uses include a helicopter landing area for the fire department, a private landfill gas-to-energy power plant, and microturbines for landfill gas cogeneration. Plans call for community gardens adjacent to LCEEC. The site also hosted the largest composting equipment demonstration in the US.

What He Does Day to Day
Meetings consume most of Gharios’ days. “I depend on a very knowledgeable and dedicated staff to handle day-to-day operations,” he says. “I provide the support and resources they need to do their job with the established budget. I also respond to requests from elected officials and, most importantly, the city’s residents.”

What Led Him to This Line of Work
Gharios always wanted to be an engineer. He earned an M.S. in civil engineering from California State University Long Beach. The city recruited him as a construction project engineer during the expansion of one of its largest water reclamation plants. In 1991, Gharios was given the opportunity to transfer to the solid resources program at Lopez, which was undergoing a major expansion. “I got hooked on the solid waste resources side,” he says. “I’ve been in the solid waste business since then. People say when you miss a road and get off at the off-ramp, heaven is right there in front of you. That’s what happened to me.”

What He Likes Best About His Work
“I get really excited when I find out I did something to please the residents of Los Angeles,” says Gharios. “That’s our job as public servants. Our department’s mission is to protect public health and the environment. Solid waste resources management is a very critical component of our mission.” He says he also enjoys what he calls the constant “politically-oriented or economically-charged” challenges. Gharios enjoys providing services with the LASAN staff. “I love to work with passionate, talented employees who care about their jobs,” he adds. He’s also a SWANA Southern California Founding Chapter board member. “It’s also exciting to work with and interact with people from the industry, learn from them, and provide my expertise to them,” he adds.

His Greatest Challenge
Gharios calls challenges “opportunities.” Transforming landfills into beneficial use sites always presents challenges, but he’s pleased that the hard work that goes into doing that—including developing a positive relationship with the community through collaboration—reaps numerous benefits. He sees continuing transformation opportunities at LCEEC, including developing a training academy at the site for solid waste drivers. He notes that it’s difficult to find solid waste truck drivers and he wants those who want the job to have a site for becoming proficient. Managing food waste presents another challenge. LASAN is running two pilot programs to find a solution. One entails an instant grinder into which homeowners would put food waste that would travel to the city’s sewer treatment plant. In the other pilot program, select residents are putting food waste into the bin for yard trimmings. “Depending on the results, we’re going to come up with a permanent solution,” notes Gharios.