KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
County’s Environmental Impact Report re-created by opponents to mislead public before public hearing tonight.
Sponsored Articles
Castaic, Calif. (December 15, 2016) – Chiquita Canyon Landfill is calling on the public to hold project opponents accountable for misusing information in the County’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in an attempt to deliberately mislead and scare the public.
“This shows a total lack of integrity by landfill opponents by playing on people’s fears and emotions,” said Mike Dean, Vice President for Chiquita Canyon. “By extracting information from the EIR and repackaging it out of context, they are telling only part of the story in an effort to scare the public. They conveniently leave out the fact that the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) established a numeric limit to protect public health and that the County’s EIR analysis shows we’re below that limit. Therefore the project does not pose a significant impact to public health.”
In response, Chiquita Canyon released the following statement late yesterday:
“Chiquita Canyon takes seriously the health and safety of our employees and neighbors. The DEIR included a detailed forensic analysis of all possible impacts to public health using the newest, most stringent standards set by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD). The results conclude that cancer risk/health risk for neighbors, workers, and other sensitive receptors fall below the threshold of significance as established by the AQMD.”
Get live news updates about Santa Clarita by following KHTS on Facebook and KHTS on TwitterThe partial recirculation of the Draft EIR includes updates and additional information to the Project Description and analyses of Biological Resources, Air Quality, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change, and Project Alternatives, as well as supplemental information on traffic and visual resources.
A public hearing on the Partially Recirculated Draft EIR will be held by the County Hearing Examiner on Thursday, December 15, starting at 6:00 pm and ending at 8:30 pm at West Ranch High School Theater.
About Chiquita Canyon
Chiquita Canyon has been in continuous operations for more than 40 years and is located in Castaic, California, approximately 3 miles west of the Interstate 5 on State Route 126 in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Chiquita Canyon provides the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding Los Angeles communities with environmentally safe and efficient waste disposal services.
Chiquita Canyon, like other solid waste landfills, over time, generates a greenhouse gas, methane, which can be safely converted into a valuable source of clean energy. Chiquita deploys a gas recovery system to collect methane which is then used to generate clean energy for nearly 10,000 homes each year.
Editors Note: The following has been provided to KHTS through a Musella Group Press Release
The Citizens for Chiquita Canyon Landfill Compliance sent KHTS AM-1220 the following statement in response to Chiquita Canyon, from member Erica Dockray:
I have to wonder what would motivate anyone to mislead the public about the landfill expansion? What would they stand to gain?
I think this is just a tactic to try and drum up support for them. Anyone who takes the time to learn about the proposal opposes it and they don’t want the larger population to learn about it. The opponents have been sharing content from the DEIR at face value. This is all a ploy.
The fact remains that the areas located on the map detailing cancer risk areas still “made the map.” Those areas are deemed as zones where cancer risk is increased, even if that cancer risk is currently said to fall below the current AQMD threshold of significance.
The article is put out by the Musella Group as it states right on the bottom. They are the landfill’s PR representatives. They get paid by the landfill to make it look good. Do you ever see a real estate listing bragging about the amazing good neighbor landfill nearby to sell home? NO. That is because there are risks and that is a simple fact. Do you want to live near the landfill? Don’t tell me I knew it when I bought it – there is more to that story.
The other simple fact is we the people of this county paid for a massive landfill to be built for us very far away from any people and it is sitting there empty because the county won’t earn the massive tipping fees they do with this landfill (basically like a tax). This is pure capitalism at its best. There is a written agreement that exists between this landfill and the local community that was a bait and switch job by the big corporation. It states that they would close at a certain tonnage and / or date whichever came first. Well they are there folks and they are not closing. There is another entry that was the bait and switch job about applying for a new CUP. As people purchased homes and build new ones as well as new businesses growing like crazy around the area with the belief this was almost over. Nice isn’t it and that is really what is happening here.
A big corporation that is not even based out of California making big profits while paying big fees to the County to keep this “good neighbor” in business. Someone show me a line of people wanting to live next to that kind of good neighbor. What a joke. We the people are sick of our lives and properties being at risk. CLOSE THE DUMP !
Abigail is that the same Musella that made flyers in Val Verde pretending to be the Val Verde Civic Association board, in both Spanish and English? On the flyer it said, “Don’t let them take our money from us.” That night so many people were upset that they packed the room and voted unanimously to shut the landfill down.” They did not want the money, they wanted their health instead. But he paid for this article stating others are misrepresenting? Hmmmmmm, I wonder if he will put an article out about himself? I wonder how much this press release called him?
This is laughable. Sharing the original cancer risk map is not re-packaging and linking to the full DEIR is not either. The more people find out about the project on their own the more they oppose it and the landfill doesn’t want that so they put together a total fake issue to try and demonize the many community members trying get the word out.
I thought this pseudo news article seemed suspicious, in it’s timing coinciding with tonight’s public meeting. Similarly on a website called Nextdoor . . Mr Musella posts that opponents are misleading the public by being selective in the information they choose to use as their argument and are fear mongering. Mr Musella identifies himself as a resident of one of our Santa Clarita communities, but does not divulge he is president of the Musella Group which is a public relations firm representing Chiquita Landfill . He may be accurate in his statement, I don’t know . . but not identifying oneself as spokesman of the firm who pays him I find questionable in tactic.
Read the revised DEIR yourself. Page 221 shows a map of the cancer risks
http://planning.lacounty.gov/assets/upl/case/project_r2004-00559_partially-rdeir.pdf
The information in the EIR is to be read by the public. It is supposed to disclose impacts and problems. My question is why didn’t the landfill disclose this information themselves by compiling an overlay cancer map from their their own data. Were they trying to hid this very serious impact? Is Santa Clarita just another Flint Michigan were activists were called names and marginalized until, low and behold, lead levels in children from the water were found to have poisoned their kids, millions of dollars had to be spent to correct the problem and people no longer have faith in their public officials to protect them?
Chiquita’s attacks on the concerned community members are disgraceful. And one might start examining the people that support this landfill in the face of such health issues, like the Santa CLarita Chamber of Commerce and many others. Is is all about money at the expense of the health of our community?
At the DEIR hearing they kept saying that the impacts would be significant. The landfill knew health impacts would be significant and continued to put out so much propaganda. Particular matter of 2.5 and 10 are now significant and will be even more so in the future. According to the landfill that is only because AQMD made them take into account all the factors. And still it was brought up that the factors of all the trucks on the surrounding freeways were not included, and the response was, “We factored in what we had to legally factor in.” Integrity?
I attended the hearing and nearly all of the public speakers were opposed to the expansion. There were many solid points made, but the one that stuck with me most was, “Follow the money.” Wake up Santa Clarita Valley–corporate and political corruption and greed rules in this community.
We have arrived at a time where the profits of corporations, and the ‘gifts’ their supporters enjoy, are more important than the well being of people in the adjacent communities, society at large, and the environment we are all dependent upon.
How will these CEOs and shareholders spend their money when the water supply is poisoned, food is tainted, the air we breathe is slowly killing us?
Last night we were under oath. Yet Marty Kreisler, under oath said he lived under 1 mile from the land fill and has never smelled the landfill. Marty that would be deceptive. Went online and measured the distance by air and you are close, but you are just under 2 miles. You are about the same distance from the landfill as Val Verde’s farthest residents. The majority by air are closer by a mile than you are. But you have to do what you have to do to get your friends landfill approved. I think you should send a letter in clearing up the deliberate deception of the distance.