Whereas, the well-known historical community of Val Verde in Northern Los Angeles County, founded in 1928 by African American leaders as a recreational refuge from the Jim Crow laws then in place in Los Angeles, and, though demographics have changed, remains to this day a multi ethnic community of approximately 2500 people, now majority Hispanic in nature;

And Whereas, Chiquita Canyon Landfill opened in 1967 for construction debris and was gradually converted to a massive landfill that, in 1998, the community of Val Verde had been promised would be closed by 2019 or when it reached 23 million tons due to the impacts on their community, but which upon reaching said tonnage in 2015, was not closed by Los Angeles County, but instead in 2017 was granted a new permit to operate for another 30 years and fill up to 63 million tons of capacity in spite of odor complaints and a lack of air monitoring data in the environmental documents;

And whereas, after 6 years of not placing the air monitors in the community as required by the Conditional Use Permit (CUP), a reaction began which heated the interior of the landfill, releasing air pollution including benzene, methane, dimethyl sulfide and other pollutants, melting the leachate pipe system when temperatures reached of 195 degrees, causing excessive pollutant laden leachate to develop and flow into the Santa Clara River, a drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of people, and causing health impacts to residents of all surrounding neighborhoods, including dizziness, asthma, headaches, bloody noses and more and causing over 10,000 complaints to be filed with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and causing numerous notices of violation by the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the SCAQMD and the Issuance of a Notice of Immanent Endangerment by the US EPA;

Therefore, be it resolved that the Unitarian Universalists of the Santa Clarita Valley call on the County of Los Angeles to take action to protect its citizens from the landfill and its operator, who has now violated numerous conditions of approval required by its conditional use permit, therefore warranting revocation of said permit and closure of this facility;

And therefore be it further resolved that this issue which has been allowed to fester and grow over many decades, is an egregious social justice violation and thus, the Unitarian Universalists of the Santa Clarita Valley calls upon the Governor to support the request of local Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, to declare a local state of emergency in order to allow residents to access all aid available through this process.

Resolution approved June 23, 2024.