CHIQUITA CANYON AND SUNSHINE CANYON

Have you or your loved ones been affected by the conditions at Chiquita Canyon Landfill and/or Sunshine Canyon Landfill, possibly resulting in harmful chemical poisoning?

In Castaic, hundreds of feet underground, in a long-dormant portion of Chiquita Canyon Landfill, tons of garbage have been smoldering due to an enigmatic chemical reaction. As a result, this landfill has been producing vapors from surface fissures, bubbling ponds, rivers of odorous waste, and steaming hot liquid geysers into the air.

As operators struggle to contain the uncontrollable pressure buildup deep within the landfill, air quality regulators are alarmed by the potential health risks posed by the toxic fumes escaping these facilities.

Environmental regulators warn that local air and water samples contain elevated levels of benzene, a cancer-causing chemical that evaporates easily. They also have reprimanded Waste Connections, the landfill’s owner, for failing to report the leaks when they first occurred and for not providing area residents with air quality data.

The gas and water leaks are being driven by a chemical reaction that has generated scorching heat and intense pressure within a 35-acre portion of the landfill. South Coast Air Quality Management District officials have described the conditions as “almost volcanic” and, in recent months, a visible white vapor has been penetrating through large cracks in the face of the reaction zone.

Officials have described the landfill’s problem as stemming from a smoldering, subsurface reaction caused by the mismanagement of an older section of the landfill. The combination of that and the historic rains last winter exponentially increased the negative, harmful conditions at the landfill which could have and should have been implemented to protect residents. 

Meanwhile, Sylmar’s Sunshine Canyon Landfill has suffered water intrusion from torrential storms this past year. That seepage has fueled bacteria growth within the Sylmar landfill, creating an ideal environment for the breeding of bacteria that release methane and odorous hydrogen sulfide, potentially poisoning residents.