Browning Ferris to Buy 302-Acre Azusa Dump Site

AZUSA —  One of the nation’s largest waste management companies has agreed to buy a 302-acre landfill in Azusa for $60 million, plus a royalty from landfill revenues.

Browning Ferris Industries, based in Houston, announced that it agreed to buy the landfill by Sept. 30 from Southdown Inc., which has owned the property through a subsidiary, Azusa Land Reclamation Co., since 1974. Southdown also is based in Houston.

James Persky, vice president of finance for Southdown, said the company is selling the property to reduce the debt incurred in buying back 28% of its own stock earlier this year.

Persky said Southdown, which also owns Transit Mixed Concrete Co., will continue quarrying operations on the property, removing rock, sand and gravel for its concrete business, and thereby creating more space for refuse disposal.

Peter Block, spokesman for Browning Ferris Industries, said the Azusa dump will be the company’s second landfill in Southern California. It operates the Sunshine Canyon landfill in Granada Hills and runs a waste hauling business in Pasadena. With annual revenues of $1.5 billion, Browning Ferris is the nation’s second largest waste management company.

Block said the Azusa landfill, which handles 1,200 to 1,400 tons of trash a day, has a life expectancy of 20 to 30 years, depending on the rate at which refuse is accepted.

The landfill at Vincent and Gladstone avenues is one of four dumps for commercial and household trash in the San Gabriel Valley. The others are the privately owned BKK landfill in West Covina and the county sanitation districts’ landfills at Spadra and Puente Hills.