Chiquita Canyon Landfill issued Order of Abatement to reduce odors

The Diamond Bar, California-based South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) Hearing Board has issued an Order of Abatement requiring the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, a Southern California landfill operated by The Woodlands, Texas-based Waste Connections Inc., to take additional steps to reduce odors.

According to South Coast AQMD, the odors have affected the community for approximately two years.

The Chiquita Canyon Landfill is a 639-acre solid waste landfill in Los Angeles County and has been accepting waste since 1972.

The order includes more than 24 conditions, which South Coast AQMD says will improve leachate collection, add preventative maintenance and inspections, mitigate odors associated with excavation activities and require additional air monitoring.

“Chiquita Canyon Landfill continues to work collaboratively with its regulators and community,” a Chiquita Canyon spokesperson says. “As reflected in the latest order from the South Coast AQMD Hearing Board, Chiquita has agreed to tens of new conditions that are targeted at reducing the impacts of the ongoing landfill reaction.”

Conditions related to the mitigation of waste odors and the proposal to change operation hours will return to the Hearing Board Nov. 13 and 14, 2024, for consideration.

“We are also pleased that South Coast AQMD and its Hearing Board recognized the gravity of some of the conditions that South Coast AQMD was seeking to impose without Chiquita’s agreement,” Chiquita Canyon’s spokesperson adds. “Mainly, reducing Chiquita’s hours of operation and reducing the size of the area where Chiquita accepts waste.” 

According to the spokesperson, these measures could result in immediate and broad impacts to the solid waste infrastructure of Los Angeles County, including increasing costs for businesses and residents.

South Coast AQMD says it has received more than 20,000 complaints about landfill odors from nearby residents since January 2023.

The order requires Chiquita Canyon Landfill to take the following actions:

• limit the size of the excavation area needed to address the ongoing elevated temperature reaction and employ additional odor mitigation measures during excavation, including applying an odor neutralizer or odor suppressant, providing notice to the community of excavation activities, performing air sampling at the excavation site and reducing excavation activities if an odor nuisance Notice of Violation is issued;
• collect instantaneous and integrated landfill surface samples for analysis across the reaction area at least three times per month at intervals of no more than once every 7 days, as well as across the remainder of the landfill at least four times per quarter, taking corrective actions as applicable based on the analysis;
• expand the public notification system for exceedances of air quality standards for benzene and hydrogen sulfide to include five additional monitoring stations;
• develop standard operating procedures for leachate tank operations in accordance with industry standards and best management practices to prevent leachate tank overflow, failure and spillage in the tank farm areas, and conduct daily inspections of leachate tanks, tank connection ports, valves, tank hoses and other leachate tank-related equipment; and
• install real-time remote monitoring systems for temperature at no fewer than twenty wellheads and investigate the feasibility of a remote monitoring system to measure pressure within the well.

As previously reported by Waste Today, operators at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill reached an agreement with South Coast AQMD to address odors in January. This agreement allowed the landfill to continue to operate but required Waste Connections to reveal the source of pollutants and allow monitoring.

In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a violation notice to Chiquita Canyon LLC regarding New Source Performance Standards and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills.

The elevated landfill temperature is ongoing at a portion of the landfill and is considered a rare occurrence, South Coast AQMD says.