The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a look into the operations of a local landfill, after a neighboring facility has drew hundreds of complaints.

County officials approved a Public Health Department review of operations, as well as the tools both facilities are using to lessen the impacts on their neighbors.

The look into operations and odor mitigation efforts comes after county officials reported an increase in interactions from the neighbors of both Sunshine Canyon, in Sylmar, and Chiquita Canyon, in Val Verde.

“We started hearing from a lot of neighbors we usually don’t hear from,” said Edel Vizcarra, planning deputy for 5th District Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “We were starting to hear from people we haven’t had a lot of interaction with.”

The increase in dialogue led to county officials taking a closer look at Sunshine Canyon, which had taken in 895 complaints regarding the odor, and 20 notices of violations, which means an Air Quality official responded to the report, and was able to record a smell.

In comparison, Chiquita Canyon had 107 odor complaints, which means a resident phoned in a concern, from Jan. 1 through Aug. 1 of this year, and only one complaint verified by an air quality expert, dating back to 2006.

Chiquita officials stated they “welcome” the opportunity to work more closely with the county on any safety or odor considerations, noting the relative lack of concern regarding operations, in comparison to the nearby Sylmar facility. (The Lancaster facility, which is the only other landfill with county oversight, was bypassed for review because the county only recently granted its operating permit.)

“Chiquita Canyon welcomes the opportunity to work with the County of Los Angeles regarding this important issue as we take very seriously the safe operations of our landfill,” said Chiquita Canyon spokesman John Musella. “As such, there has been only one Notice of Violation issued to Chiquita Canyon by the South Coast AQMD in nearly 10 years. Compare that to the 180 Notices of Violation issued to Sunshine Canyon landfill in just the past eight years.

Both the county and Chiquita Canyon mentioned mitigation efforts by the local landfill, and noted Chiquita Canyon’s review had more to do with the fact it was currently operating on an expired permit, with a “clean hands” waiver, which means the landfill can continue to operate until a further review of its application for a conditional use permit can be completed.

County officials expressed optimism the permit review could take place by the first quarter of next year, in the interest of the landfill and the public.

The Chiquita Canyon Landfill is located in the community of Val Verde in the unincorporated Santa Clarita Valley. The landfill has been operating since 1972 under land use permits granted by Lo Angeles County. In 1997, the landfill operator requested and was permitted to increase the amount of trash it receives each day. The limit set then was 23 million tons, which was recently reached, resulting in the renewal application by Chiquita Canyon.

“It is important that the county investigate these complaints and review the Conditional Use Permit for the landfill and identify any and all Conditions of Approval and enforcement tools to eliminate landfill odors migrating beyond the property boundary,” according to the agenda item, “and impacting the community of Val Verde.”