In most neighborhoods, community means connection. But for the towns of Castaic and Val Verde, it means standing together to protect their cities from a toxic threat.
“It just wasn’t just odors, it was odors that were making you instantly sick,” said Steven Howse, a resident of Val Verde for 27 years.
“You would get instant headaches, you’d have trouble breathing, you start coughing, you have sinus problems and a lot of real physical issues when we’re like, what the heck is going on?”
These two communities have for years protested the operators’ practices at Chiquita Canyon Landfill, located just off Highway 126.
“We pretty much stay on that side where you don’t smell it so bad in here,” said Wayne Richter, a resident of Castaic for 22 years.
“It’s pretty good in here, but out there, you can smell it when you go outside, especially at night,” said Richter
At the start of the year, County officials stopped accepting new trash at the facility. Since implementing new measures, some argue that it has made the situation worse.
“We thought this was a home that we would live in for a long time,” said Jennifer Elkins, a resident of Val Verde for 9 years
“We were raising our kids here, and to hear that it’s not getting better, it’s actually getting worse, and they have no control over it, we’re devastated,” said Elkins.
The California Environmental Protection Agency reports that polluted liquid from the landfill, known as leachate, has expanded from 30 acres to 90.
“That things are breaking down so quickly, and at such high temperatures that whether you can see flames or not, it’s heated so much that when it’s like a boiling pot, when it hits the air, that’s going quickly into the air.” Said Oshea Orchid, a partner with Sethi Orchid Miner and the managing partner of their Val Verde office.
We attempted to contact Chiquita for a comment, but have not received a response.
