AQMD Presses Case in Landfill Mishap
Air quality officials said Tuesday that they will ask the district attorney’s office to file criminal charges against the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation for an incident in which workers at the Lopez Canyon Landfill were overcome by noxious fumes.
The city-operated landfill in Lake View Terrace had already been cited by the South Coast Air Quality Management District for grading a road without the required air district permit.
On March 8, two workers who were grading the road fainted and required medical care after they uncovered garbage that was buried in 1982. Although the odors that sickened the workers have never been identified, the air quality district believes they were caused by hydrogen sulfide, a gas that occurs when manure and garbage break down.
Air district spokesman Bill Kelly said his department’s investigation will be referred to the district attorney within two weeks.
The air district’s case focuses on why city workers were grading a road through a mountain of trash without a permit, Kelly said.
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