Dumping site drawing safety concerns

LA CRESCENTA — A Los Angeles County site being used as a dumping ground for most of the area’s debris basins has caused concerns among city officials and residents who fear it could give way during the next major rainstorm, dumping mud debris onto Markridge Road homes.

Crews have been excavating mud from debris basins and unloading the material at the county Flood Control District’s Dunsmuir Sediment Placement Site adjacent to Deukmejian Wilderness Park.

But the addition of more than 200,000 cubic yards of debris on an already weakened and fragile hillside has some city officials and residents worried that it could come down onto homes during another series of powerful storms, said Steve Zurn, Glendale’s Public Works director.

“We have expressed our concern, and we have expressed concern on your part as well,” he told residents during a public information meeting Wednesday night. “But while we fully understand [the need to clear] out the basins . . . we want to make sure we are not just transferring the problem from one area to another.”

City officials want to ensure that homes on Markridge Road, which are directly below the site, will be safe should the dirt loosen during a rainstorm, Zurn said.

Mark Pestrella, assistant deputy director of Los Angeles County Public Works, told residents at the meeting that crews would be grading and forming the dumped dirt according to slope to make it more secure.

And even though the slope hasn’t been formed, he said the debris, which is mostly mud and rocks, is being compacted. And any plants or trees are set aside and taken to dumps.

Pestrella added that the site was stable enough to withstand a powerful storm.

Still, some spillage recently ran off the site and a rear hillside. But he said the overflow wasn’t significant and was more like muddied water.

The site was built in the 1950s after officials created large debris basins in response to the massive Crescenta Valley floods in 1934, Pestrella said.

While less than 1 million cubic yards of debris, or less than half the basin’s capacity, has been placed at the site since it was built, he said, it will likely be full by next year.

More than 400,000 cubic yards of foothill area material has been taken to a site in Pacoima, he said.

Flood control officials are working with the state to get permits to use another site because debris from the Station fire has already taxed most of the county’s capacity, Pestrella said.

Markridge Road resident Derek Kluft said debris flows from the site and park are a major concern for him, especially because he cares for his fragile mother at the house.

Constant evacuations have been arduous, he said, but they’ve been accepted as necessary.

“We all get tired of the evacuations, but they are doing what they can,” he said.

Get in touch VERONICA ROCHA covers public safety and the courts. She may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at veronica.rocha@ latimes.com.