What you need to know: Landfill oversight in California

• California has some of the most robust laws in the country for waste disposal. These laws are grounded in sound science to protect public health and the environment.
• Federal and state regulations ensure that landfill operations conducted at the local level minimize impacts to public health and the environment. Landfills must follow rigorous safety protocols, designed to protect health, safety, and the environment.
• Debris cleanup from the Los Angeles County wildfires is federally led, locally coordinated and state supported. All parties are working closely together under a unified command structure to ensure that cleanup happens quickly and safely.

In California, the following agencies collaborate to regulate landfills, overseeing their operations, compliance with state standards, and closure and post-closure activities:

Local Enforcement Agencies (LEAs)

LEAs, with technical assistance from CalRecycle, oversee solid waste facility permitting, operating requirements, closure and post-closure maintenance. LEAs inspect active landfills each month.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

The LEA for Los Angeles County is housed within the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. One landfill in Los Angeles County—Sunshine Canyon—is also located partly within the City of Los Angeles. It is regulated by the Sunshine Canyon Landfill LEA, which was created jointly by the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles. Information related to individual landfills is available through CalRecycle’s Solid Waste Information System.

California Regional Water Quality Control Boards (Regional Water Boards)

Regional Water Boards regulate the disposal of solid waste in landfills to ensure protection of groundwater. They do this by issuing Waste Discharge Requirements. There are nine Regional Water Boards across California.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has jurisdiction over the coastal watersheds between Rincon Point on the coast of western Ventura County and the eastern Los Angeles County line. GeoTracker offers information about the status of individual landfills.

Air Quality Management Districts (Air Districts)

Local air districts issue permits for landfill gas control systems’ air emissions. Information related to individual landfills is available through South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Facility Information Detail (F.I.N.D.) site.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is responsible for Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)

DTSC regulates hazardous waste disposal facilities. When hazardous waste is disposed of in California, the state requires that it go to special facilities that are permitted and regulated to accept it. This helps ensure protection of public health and the environment.

California has 3 classes of landfills:  

Class 1 Landfill – Hazardous Waste.

• • Class 1 landfills are regulated by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, with local monitoring and mitigation for water and air quality impacts conducted by Regional Water Quality Control Boards and Air Quality Management Districts.
  • The types of waste accepted by these facilities include hazardous materials such as soils, debris, and asbestos.
  • DTSC’s permits require monitoring for disposal facilities that include groundwater, soil, soil gas, and air monitoring programs.
    • • Permit conditions also require the facilities to send regular monitoring reports.
      • The groundwater and air monitoring results are also sent to the local water board and air district as applicable.

Permitting staff review the reports along with toxicologists, geologists, and engineers. Adjustments/mitigations to facility practices may then follow if necessary.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

Hazardous materials from Phase 1 are being disposed of in Class 1 landfills where appropriate. Other Phase 1 materials are being recycled and recovered, where possible, or disposed of in facilities authorized to receive the identified waste streams.

Class 2 Landfill – Designated Waste.

• • Class 2 landfills are regulated by Local Enforcement Agencies (also called LEAs) with technical assistance from CalRecycle.
  • Local monitoring and mitigation for water- and air-quality impacts are conducted by Regional Water Quality Control Boards and Air Quality Management Districts.

Class 3 Landfill – Nonhazardous Solid Waste.

• • Class 3 landfills are regulated by LEAs with technical assistance from CalRecycle.
  • Local monitoring and mitigation for water and air quality impacts are conducted by Regional Water Quality Control Boards and Air Quality Management District.
  • Municipal solid waste landfills have liner systems within newer units that are designed to protect the soil and groundwater from contamination, as well as monitoring systems to detect failures in the liner.

Emergency waivers temporarily authorize modification of operating requirements to expedite a safe recovery from a disaster. Local Enforcement Agencies are authorized to grant emergency waivers to modify landfill permit conditions for requirements related to limitations on the daily or weekly tonnage that a landfill can accept, hours and/or days of operation, and limitations on vehicle trips. LEA waivers do not alter health and safety standards.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

The Los Angeles County Local Enforcement Agency (LEA) has granted emergency waivers to the following landfills in Los Angeles County: Azusa Land Reclamation Landfill, Calabasas Landfill (owned by Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts), Antelope Valley Recycling and Disposal Facility. The Sunshine Canyon Landfill LEA has granted an emergency waiver to Sunshine Canyon Landfill (owned by Republic Services).

Emergency waivers have not been granted to modify disposal requirements related to hazardous waste from Phase 1 Hazardous Materials Removal operations.

Emergency waivers have been granted to modify requirements related to debris from Phase 2 Ash and Debris Removal operations, as follows: CalRecycle can modify, suspend emergency waivers if use of the waiver would cause harm to public health and safety or the environment.  But the waiver itself only suspends operating conditions, and termination of a waiver would not prevent a landfill from receiving fire debris.

The State Water Resources Control Board has created an expedited process for authorizing Class 3 landfills to accept disaster debris. This is essentially an emergency permit, conditioned on the following protections:

• • The debris comes from a declared disaster area.
  • The debris is placed in cells with liner systems– similar to Class 1 and Class 2 landfill liners—designed to protect groundwater.
  • The receiving facility regularly tests the groundwater.
  • The emergency authorization specifically prohibits disposal of household hazardous waste, such as paint cans, solvents, electronic waste, poisons, and drums with unknown contents.
  • It authorizes disposal of ash from fire disasters, but as noted above, only in cells with liner systems which are designed to eliminate or minimize exposures to the environment.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is conducting Phase 2 ash and debris removal for the LA wildfires and, therefore, is the best source to explain the safety protocols currently being followed to protect communities.

To protect communities, there are several safety protocols that the state of California follows whenever it conducts Phase 2 ash and debris removal operations:

• • Household hazardous waste and asbestos can be doubled bagged.
  • Any remaining asbestos can be collected, doubled bagged, and safely disposed.
  • The waste can be taken to facilities that are approved to receive hazardous waste or asbestos.
  • Remaining asbestos is collected, doubled bagged, and safely disposed.
  • Watering ash and debris during removal keeps it from becoming airborne.

To ensure the debris is contained during transport to a landfill, wet debris can be loaded, sealed and tarped in a plastic-lined truck.

The ash/debris can be taken directly to the landfill using emissions control actions:

• • Landfills minimize dust by watering it and covering newly deposited waste with soil.
  • Debris can go into specially lined cells to keep waste from groundwater.
    • • Leachate liquid collected in lined cells is removed, tested, and/or treated.
      • Regular groundwater and leachate testing is conducted at all landfills.
  • Dumped material can be covered by 6 inches of soil each day.
    • • Covered in 12 more inches of soil when a cell is not being used for 180 days.
      • When closed, the entire landfill gets a cover as impermeable as the liner:
        • • Impermeable soil, composite cover, then more soil.

Debris removal occurs in two phases. Phase 1 removes hazardous materials. Phase 2 removes bulk asbestos and structural ash and debris from burned properties to reduce the risk of exposure to the public and recovery workers.

2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires:

Phase 1: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has assigned the mission for Phase 1 to the United States Environmental Protection Agency for this unprecedented disaster. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has been mission tasked by the California Office of Emergency Services to support U.S. EPA for Phase 1 removal of hazardous materials.

Phase 2: The second phase focuses first on the removal of asbestos containing materials, and then on removal of remaining debris and ash. FEMA has assigned the mission for Phase 2 to the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Please see response to Question 1 for state and local roles.