Shortly before the Air Quality Management District’s planned board meeting to discuss alleged violations at the notoriously smelly Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic, the agency suddenly rescheduled the hearing for Jan. 9.
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The AQMD was supposed to meet Tuesday regarding allegations that the landfill’s operators knew about its leachate-seepage problem since April, but didn’t report it until the agency issued a notice-to-comply in October. Chiquita Canyon has already been hit with more than 100 violations by the AQMD.
The Santa Clarita Valley Signal reports that AQMD’s director of communications announced the month-long hearing postponement in a Sunday morning email, without providing a reason. Attorneys for the agency said a miscommunication led to delays in obtaining records from the landfill ahead of the meeting.
The odor coming from Chiquita Canyon is so intense that a group of residents near Castaic filed a class-action lawsuit in August. L.A. County opened a grant program in October to reimburse residents for the sky-high electrical bills they racked up by keeping the windows closed and air conditioning running all summer.
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