Odor Enforcement: South Coast Air Quality Management District (California) Proposed Order Addressing Castaic Landfill

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (“South Coast AQMD”)  issued an August 27th press release stating that its Hearing Board issued an Order for Abatement (“Order”) for the Chiquita Canyon Landfill (“CCL”).

CCL is owned by Waste Connections and located in Castaic, California.

The Order requires CCL to take additional steps to reduce odors that are stated to have been impacting the community for nearly two years. It is described as including more than two conditions whose objective is to:

• Improve leachate collection.
• Add preventative maintenance and inspections.
• Mitigate odors associated with excavation activities.
• Require additional air monitoring.

Additional actions required by the Order include:

• Limit the size of the excavation area needed to address the ongoing elevated temperature reaction and employ additional odor mitigation measures during excavation, including applying an odor neutralizer or odor suppressant, providing notice to the community of excavation activities, performing air sampling at the excavation site, and reducing excavation activities if an odor nuisance Notice of Violation is issued.
• Collect instantaneous and integrated landfill surface samples for analysis across the Reaction Area at least three times per month, at intervals of no more than once every 7 days, and additionally across the remainder of the landfill at least four times per quarter and taking corrective actions as applicable based on the analysis.
• Expand the public notification system for exceedances of air quality standards for benzene and H2S to include five additional monitoring stations.
• Develop standard operating procedures for leachate tank operations in accordance with industry standards and best management practices to prevent leachate tank overflow, failure, and spillage in the tank farm areas, as well as conduct daily inspections of leachate tanks, tank connection ports, valves, tank hoses, and other leachate tank-related equipment.
• Install real-time remote monitoring systems for temperature at no fewer than twenty wellheads and investigate the feasibility of a remote monitoring system to measure pressure within the well.

The South Coast AQMD Hearing Board is described as an independent panel that “hears all sides of a case, weighs the evidence, and reaches a decision.” The Hearing Board is stated to have convened a hearing on August 17th which reconvened on August 20th and August 27th.

South Coast AQMD is stated to have received more than 20,000 complaints about odors from the landfill from nearby residents since January 2023.

A copy of the news release can be downloaded here.