CA makes the largest minimum to limit landfills

By Yasmin Valdivia, special for Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

The Los Angeles County Community in Val Verde has been my home for 48 years. There I grew up where I raised my children and where my husband and I plan to retire. This was where people said “hello” on each other on the street, the kids rode their engines around and you didn’t need to think twice about the air you breathe.

However, what was previously clean, breathable air is now filled with the stench and the pollution coming from The Chiquita Canyon landfillS It is disturbing that the air is no longer just unpleasant – It is toxicS

For years, my neighbors and I sounded the alarm because of the harmful pollution emitted by the landfill. Me and my friends and family have chronic symptoms such as headaches, rashes, eye burning and constant nausea. People complain of migraines, asthmatic attacks, stomach problems and even reproductive problems.

California landfills also emit huge amounts of highly polluting greenhouse, methane that contribute to global warming. Only in 2023, Estimated Methane Emissions The landfills in California were equivalent to more than 5 million cars on the road. Greenhouse gases exacerbated natural disasters, with the horrible January fires, from which the Los Angeles area is still recovering.

There are people with the power to do something about this. The California Air Resources Council determine the standards of how depot operators find and control methane emissions. These standards, called a methane rule, have not been updated since 2010. This is 15 years agoS And while currently the air resource board is considering updates on the rules, they move too slowly and try to get out of the minimum with the naked.

The most recent Carb Suggested updates to landfills provisions They fail to include basic, proven strategies that could protect our health and climate. Recently report From the hardworking laboratories, they find that the updates on common sense on how to operate landfills can reduce methane emissions by half by 2050. Reducing methane also means reducing the dangerous odds that make people sick.

One study found that the greater part of the people of Val Verde often experienced a headache. This is not normal. And worsened only – only in 2024. More than 14,000 complaints Regarding the landfill, they were presented in the area for the quality of air quality on the south coast.

I learned that while the situation of Val Verde is detrimental, Unfortunately not uniqueS There are more than 300 depots in the state and many – like Newby Island in Milpasse, a clover case in Calistoga and Alennamental depot in Avenal – they were also in the news of illness nearby. This is because depots emit health pollutants such as benzene, sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds.

Like Val Verde, where nearly 60% of residents are Spanish, color communities are often the ones that carry the main weight of landfill pollution. This is no accident that 70% of the highest-level depot in California are located in these communities, an open report of hardworking laboratories. Communities like mine pay the price in the doctor’s accounts, on hospital days, in a missed school and in life, shortened by toxic exposure.

Carb can make a significant difference at the moment, requiring stronger practices to cover the landfills, making sure that more gas is being collected for landfills before escaping our atmosphere and using established technology to find invisible methane leaks.

These are not radical solutions – they are affordable, effective and ready to go.

Watching the people I love has pushed me into activism. I had no choice. I started talking – not only in my neighborhood, but also for selected employees and politicians at all levels of government. I even shared my story with the US Environmental Protection Agency last year and testified to the Air Resources Council earlier this year.

Poor landfill management comes at a price, and California communities have paid this price for too long. We did our role – we testified, we were injured, we were waiting. Now Carb has to do its job and protect the California communities.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.