On-Scene Response
On-Scene Response
Chiquita Canyon is a 639-acre landfill that provides Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding Los Angeles communities with waste disposal services. The landfill is in Castaic, California, approximately 3 miles west of Interstate 5 on State Route 126. It is owned and operated by Chiquita Canyon, LLC, an integrated solid waste services company, and has been operating for nearly 50 years.
In November 2023, local, state and federal agencies formed a team (the Multi-Agency Coordination Action Team or M-CAT) to address the human health and environmental impacts caused by the deteriorating conditions at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. The team’s coordination resulted in several important action orders, including a stipulated order for abatement issued by South Coast AQMD Hearing Board to address odor issues and a Unilateral Administrative Order issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) requiring the landfill to comply with the law and properly manage, treat and dispose of hazardous waste and to take steps to mitigate the odors emanating from the landfill.
In March 2024, Los Angeles County, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the U.S. EPA agreed to shift coordination into a new phase and created a Response Multi-Agency Coordination (R-MAC) Group composed of federal, state and local on-scene coordinators to work with the landfill operators and its incident management team. The response group enhances coordination on the ground and better leverages the collective expertise and legal authorities across all local, state and federal agencies.
The group’s objectives (subject to change as conditions evolve) include:
- Establishing additional source, perimeter and community air monitoring.
- Characterizing and managing leachate production, storage, treatment, and disposal.
- Ensuring the stability of the impacted landfill cells and monitor changes in surface conditions.
- Ensuring the community and stakeholders remain informed.
The R-MAC is engaging with the landfill operator, and this structure is expected to allow for quicker, more aggressive action.
Incident Update
The increased production of leachate is both the product of, and a catalyst for, the reaction within the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. Addressing the leachate issue is of critical importance because increased generation of leachate, without removal, will continue to exacerbate the reaction, increase off- gassing, and may also cause physical instability of the reaction area, which could threaten surface water. While the landfill facility is taking measures to capture and reduce these landfill gasses at the source and storage areas, removing the leachate from the affected area will starve out the thermal reaction and significantly reduce the generation of landfill gases.
An Incident Management Team (IMT) has been activated with the support of the Response Multi-Agency Coordination (R-MAC) group to oversee the immediate mitigation plans related to the leachate. The IMT, in coordination with subject matter experts from federal, state and local agencies will direct and oversee the landfill’s mitigation efforts to address public health concerns related to the leachate and implement enhanced monitoring and mitigation measures. The agencies within R-MAC include the U.S. EPA, CalEPA and the Los Angeles County Health Hazardous Materials Division.
Key objectives of the current Incident Action Plan will be to:
- Ensure worker health and safety.
- Protect public health through source, perimeter, and community continuous air monitoring and sampling.
- Characterize and manage the leachate production, storage, treatment and disposal.
- Identify and prepare contingency plans.
- Conduct site surveys and monitoring.
- Implement Best Management Practices and mitigation measures to limit impacts to public health and the environment.
Inspection and Enforcement History
Various state and local regulatory agencies have been overseeing Chiquita Canyon Landfill, including California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle); the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Solid Waste Management Program (which is certified to act as the Local Enforcement Agency [LEA] by CalRecycle); California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD); the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Los Angeles Regional Water Board); and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). Together, these are known as the “regulatory agencies.” The regulatory agencies have made and continue to make numerous efforts to address the reaction.
You can find details on enforcement actions on the agencies' respective websites:
