By Jorge Casuso

February 21, 2025 -- The City of Santa Monica must act quickly to find a permanent garbage disposal site after the landfill it has used for more than 15 years abruptly shut down for good on New Years Eve.

The closure of the Chiquita Canyon landfill facility in Castaic, California will create an "unexpected" and "significant" increase in the cost of landfill disposal services, Public Works officials said.

The "abrupt, permanent closure" has "created an unanticipated public health and safety emergency," staff wrote in a report to the City Council, which will take up the issue Tuesday.

It also has left the City without a permanent location to dispose of the approximately 63,500 tons, or some 127 million pounds, of landfill trash it generates per year.

Since January 1, the City has been using the LA County Sanitation District's (LACSD) Puente Hills Material Recycling Facility -- one of its four back-up landfills -- at a cost of $1.8 million through March 31.

The report recommends that the Council quickly enter into a contract ensuring the landfill services are secured amid stiff daily competition from other cities that used the Chiquita Canyon landfill.

"Landfill facilities are capped at a mandated level, and once a facility reaches its capacity for the day, it is precluded from accepting any additional solid waste," staff wrote.

"As one of the largest landfills in the region, Chiquita Canyon had many customers, all of whom are now contending for an allotment of the remaining regional landfill capacity."

The competition has further stiffened in the wake of last month's wildfires that "require a massive cleanup effort that will place additional stressors on the solid waste disposal market in the region.

"Thus, it is imperative to secure a long-term solid waste disposal solution for the City by entering into an emergency landfill services contract with LACSD," staff wrote.

The City will pay a "substantially higher rate" than the $38 per ton it had paid at Chiquita Canyon, staff said.

LACSD has offered the City "a flat rate of $90 per ton with only CPI increases for the next five years."

While solid waste rates are not expected to rise "at this time," staff is "actively analyzing the impact to the RRR (Resource Recovery and Recycling) Fund in future years."

Staff noted that the "significant increase in landfill disposal services expenses was unexpected and therefore, not accounted for in the previous solid waste rate study."

Public Works staff is also asking the Council to authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a $38 million five-year agreement with LACSD's Puente Hills facility.

The recommended award would be made "as an exception to the competitive bidding process."

The 639-acre Chiquita Canyon Landfill in the Santa Clarita Valley was shut down after its owners announced they were "unable to extinguish a smoldering chemical reaction that sent noxious odors into area neighborhoods," according to a December 31 article in the LA Times.

“Chiquita had wished to maintain its crucial role in the community’s solid waste management system, but has made the difficult decision to close its active waste disposal operations,” the landfill’s manager said in a statement.

“Although Chiquita has available [capacity], due to the regulatory environment, maintaining ongoing operations at Chiquita is no longer economically viable.”