FAQ

This page was last updated on March 21, 2025

FAQ + Useful links

Use the below accordions to view answers to FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) from the community. Please also see the useful links below that will take you to articles off of this site.

Chiquita Canyon: An Update on State’s Response
The Signal, by Pilar Schiavo – April 2, 2024

All Hands Needed on Chiquita
The Signal, Becki Robb – April 9, 2024

Castaic school district, landfill working on air quality mitigation
The Signal, Tyler Wainfeld – April 12, 2024

Why is Chiquita Canyon, LLC (Chiquita) not taking the reaction and its impacts on the community, or the community’s complaints, seriously?

Chiquita takes very seriously its role in the safe operation of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill (Landfill) and in open, real-time communication with the local community and Chiquita’s regulators. Chiquita and its many consultants and experts have been working around the clock over the past several months to implement a multitude of mitigation measures to address and stop the landfill reaction and any related impacts. Chiquita implemented an incident command system to better restructure its response to the reaction and ensure continued cooperation with Chiquita’s regulators. Chiquita provides regular updates on the implementation of its mitigation measures and other updates concerning the landfill to both its regulators and to the public. Chiquita continues to work cooperatively with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and all of its regulators to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Chiquita cares about the community and takes seriously the community’s complaints. The Chiquita Canyon Landfill Community Relief Program was initiated in March 2024 to assist with offsetting costs associated with odor mitigation for those living in communities surrounding the Landfill. Through this Program, residents of Val Verde, Live Oak, Hasley Hills, Hillcrest Parkway, Hasley Canyon, and Stevenson Ranch have been able to request funding that can be used to assist with expenses such as temporary relocation, home hardening, and increased utility bills. Program applicants could also request an air filtration device or replacement air filters. As a result of long-term trends in on-site surface emissions data and off-site air quality data, Chiquita decided to end the Community Relief Program at the end of February 2025.

  • Duration: March 2024 – February 2025
  • Total distributions: expected to total over $25 million (including February distributions)
  • Air filters distributed: over 1,000

View the two letters Chiquita submitted to Senator Scott Wilk (en Español) and to the U.S. EPA, Supervisor Kathryn Barger, and South Coast AQMD (en Español) on August 29, 2024, containing updates on the Community Relief Program and responding to letters received on July 25 from Senator Wilk and August 7 from the U.S. EPA, Supervisor Barger, and South Coast AQMD.

There have been many complaints from the community of eye irritation, respiratory symptoms, and skin issues. Why has Chiquita continued to say there are no health impacts facing the local community?

Chiquita fully recognizes that neighboring communities are suffering odor-related impacts as a result of the reaction. Recognizing these impacts, Chiquita has committed and is currently working to provide assistance to those affected by odors from the Landfill. The current data and evaluation by experts, including an independent health risk evaluation conducted at the direction of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, show that there are no anticipated long-term health impacts from these odors. However, the study by the Department of Public Health states, and Chiquita recognizes, that odors may cause short-term health impacts or may otherwise affect quality of life.

Pursuant to a Stipulated Order for Abatement with South Coast AQMD, Chiquita was required to have prepared by a third party an analysis of potential health impacts and an assessment of potential odor impacts. In compliance with this requirement, toxicologists with CTEH prepared a Health Impacts Report and toxicologists with Intertox prepared an Odor Impacts Assessment Report. An easy-to-read summary of the reports is attached immediately below, along with copies of the reports and supporting information:

Why does the landfill continue to ignore the local community’s pleas for assistance regarding the odor?

Chiquita has and continues to address the community’s requests for assistance. Chiquita previously released $3.5 million in funding to Los Angeles County to be used to fund environmental, educational, and quality of life programs, or to fund regional public facilities that serve the Val Verde, Castaic, and other unincorporated areas of the County surrounding the Landfill. Los Angeles County used $2.5 million of those funds to establish the County’s Utility Relief Grant Program. The program run by Chiquita had a wider scope than the County’s program, offering payments for more neighborhoods and for additional expenses.

Chiquita has also distributed over one thousand air filtration devices to the community and continues to make the devices as well as replacement air filters available to the community. For more information on each of these programs, please visit the following webpage: https://chiquitacanyon.com/odor-mitigation/.

Evidence of the landfill reaction dates back to May 2022, resulting in thousands of odor complaints in 2023 and 2024 thus far, as well as multiple regulatory actions in 2023 and 2024. Why has Chiquita done nothing about this?

In cooperation with its many regulators, Chiquita has implemented a multitude of mitigation measures to better understand and address and stop the landfill reaction. Chiquita started implementing many of these mitigation measures voluntarily when the reaction first began and is now implementing these measures, as well as many more, as required by and in coordination with its regulators. More information on these mitigation measures and status updates on the implementation of these measures is available at the following webpage: https://chiquitacanyon.com/odor-mitigation/. Chiquita continues to work cooperatively with the EPA and all of its regulators to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Why isn’t Chiquita being transparent about current issues at the Landfill?

Chiquita takes very seriously its role in the safe operation of the Landfill and in open, real-time communication with the local community and Chiquita’s regulators. Chiquita consistently participates in and answers questions during multiple public community meetings that occur each month. Chiquita also updates its website on at least a weekly basis with information about current issues at the Landfill and the multitude of mitigation measures and activities that Chiquita is conducting and data that Chiquita is collecting. Please see the following webpage for more information: https://chiquitacanyon.com/odor-mitigation/.

Is there a fire at the Landfill?

No, there is no fire at the Landfill. The Landfill is experiencing an elevated temperature landfill (ETLF) event, or a “reaction” – a chemical reaction occurring deep within an old portion of the Landfill, which has resulted in elevated temperatures and increased generation of landfill gas and leachate (liquids produced by a landfill). Things such as increased leachate production would not occur with a fire—the amount of leachate produced by the Landfill has increased tenfold since the ETLF event.

Is Chiquita discharging hazardous waste into the environment? Is the landfill leachate presenting a serious and dangerous situation at the Landfill?

Chiquita has retained a third-party consultant to assist win the recharacterization, management, treatment, and disposal of Chiquita’s leachate.

Leachate extracted from the landfill that is characteristically hazardous is typically handled in one of two ways. A portion of this hazardous leachate is shipped to permitted, off-site hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities. The rest of the hazardous leachate is treated on-site and rendered non-hazardous. Chiquita sends the treated non-hazardous leachate to non-hazardous treatment and disposal facilities once post-treatment confirmatory sampling shows that the treated leachate is below regulatory levels and the facilities have approved the shipment.

Chiquita tests its onsite sedimentation basins on a regular basis in order to ensure compliance with the facility’s stormwater permit and related requirements, including implementation of substantial measures to prevent leachate from commingling with stormwater and/or discharging offsite.

Chiquita is also working cooperatively with its County, state, and federal regulators, many of which are regularly coming onsite to assess the management of this leachate, to minimize potential risks.

There are reports that the odor is going to continue for as long as the ETLF event is happening, and ETLF events can last for years. Is this true?

As Chiquita has discussed at several of the community meetings it hosts and attends, the ETLF conditions may continue for years, but once Chiquita is able to fully implement some of the mitigation measures that are currently in progress, it believes that it will be able to mitigate or eliminate odor impacts in the shorter term. This has been the experience at several other of the 10 to 15 landfills across the country that have experienced ETLF events in the majority of their waste mass.

Are these ETLF events or landfill reactions common?

No. There are hundreds of municipal solid waste landfills in North America, but there are only approximately 10 to 15 landfills with the majority of their waste mass that can be characterized as experiencing an ETLF event or landfill reaction. There are also only another 40 or so other landfills that have had a relatively limited portion of their waste mass exhibit ETLF conditions.