Malfunctioning hose causes hazmat situation at Chiquita Canyon Landfill

A malfunctioning hose caused a hazmat situation at the troublesome Chiquita Canyon Landfill on Friday night.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said a high-pressure pump system filtering debris from the ground failed and spilled out. 

The 639-acre landfill has been mired in controversy with dozens of Santa Clarita Valley residents suing the company in early February operating the waste management site for causing their health to deteriorate. The lawsuit claimed that the people living there endured congestion, cough, body aches, burning eyes and ear pain for years.

"It is pages and pages and pages of people and families who are going through some serious issues," Attorney Harout Keosian said. 

Days after the residents filed the lawsuit, an independent study found that the dump was causing a myriad of "short-term health effects," many of which matched the symptoms reported by residents. 

In January, the South Coast Air Quality Management District ordered the landfill to address multiple problems at the site, including the control of leachate, a liquid pollutant that is pooling, bubbling and even shooting out of the landfill. It's the source of the foul-smelling odor. 

"A review of Chiquita Canyon's air monitoring data showed approximately 35% of all hydrogen sulfide (H2S) readings over the past year exceeded the California state standard of 30 parts per billion (ppb), averaged over one hour," South Coast AQMD stated after January's hearing. 

On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered the landfill's operators to "take immediate steps to protect human health and the environment.