Panel Deadlocks on Dump Extension : Sanitation: The City Council will now decide whether to continue operating Lopez Canyon Landfill until 1997.

Reflecting the city’s philosophical split over a controversial dump, a Los Angeles City Council panel failed to reach a consensus Tuesday on a proposal to continue operating Lopez Canyon Landfill until 1997.

The Planning and Land Use Committee deadlocked in a 1-1 vote on whether to continue operating the city-owned landfill for one year beyond its February closing date. The entire council is scheduled to make a final decision next Wednesday.

Councilman Hal Bernson, chairman of the panel, voted against the extension while Councilwoman Laura Chick supported it. The third member of the panel, Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, was absent.

“As they say in the boxing ring, it’s a draw,” Bernson said.

Bernson noted that when the council granted an extension of the landfill in 1991, it included a provision promising to seek no more extensions past 1996. He said it is important for the city to keep that promise.

“This is not a matter of money. This is not a matter of doing what is easy. This is a matter or keeping our word,” he said.

But Chick said a city study has estimated that it would cost about $47.2 million to close the landfill and divert the city’s trash to privately run dumps.

“Where are we going to come up with the money to close Lopez?” she asked.

Chick said “it’s painful” to break the promise made before she took office in 1993, but added that she has a duty to be a “watchdog of the taxpayers’ dollars.”

Chick also blasted previous council members for making the promise and failing to look into cheap trash disposal alternatives.

The positions taken by Bernson and Chick reflect the split that is expected to be heard next week when the entire council wrestles with the decision. Most council members said they have yet to decide on the issue.

The dispute began to heat up several months ago when the city’s Bureau of Sanitation recommended extending the life of Lopez Canyon until 2001, arguing that the landfill has the capacity to accept 3 million more tons of trash and offers the city its cheapest disposal alternative.

The Planning Commission agreed with the bureau but voted in September to approve only a one-year extension to give the bureau time to find other alternatives to Lopez Canyon.

A city study released Monday said closing the dump and hauling trash to a private firm would cost the city $47.2 million above what the city would pay to to extend the landfill for five years. Sanitation officials acknowledged Tuesday that due to an accounting error, that figure is probably closer to $39 million.

Lake View Terrace residents and their elected representatives have protested the extension, saying the city is obligated to keep its promise.

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“What kind of message are we sending if we are going to ignore the promises that we have made?” said Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the Lake View Terrace area and has been a vocal opponent of any extension.

Some Lake View Terrace residents told the committee that they fear the Bureau of Sanitation will continue to extend the life of the dump indefinitely.

“If they couldn’t solve this problem in five years, how can they solve it in one year?” longtime resident Mary Ann Burnakis asked.

An attorney representing the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., a homeowners’ group opposed to the dump, said the city may face a “massive lawsuit” if it breaks the promise and extends the life of the landfill beyond February.