Sun Valley couple calls on city to clean up their neighbor's scrap-filled yard
For the last three years, Elena Malone and her family have lived next to a composition of junk curated by their neighbor in Sun Valley.
The variety of trash ranges from broken-down boats and rusted-out cars, including an ambulance, to unattended and open propane tanks next to gasoline bottles. At one point, one of the old vehicles blocked Malone's driveway.
"I couldn't leave my house to get my husband, who really needed me at the time," Malone said.
After she and her husband Josh Ryan purchased their dream home off La Tuna Canyon in 2021, the couple has kept a running list of the city, county, state and other government agencies she's asked for help — nearly a dozen. None of them has helped solve their problem.
Malone said the responses she's gotten were that it's not the city's problem or that it's unsafe for officers to go onto the property.
In April, the city took swift action to clean up the trash-filled home in the Fairfax District after they declared it an "imminent health and safety hazard."
As for the Sun Valley property, Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez only said they are working to resolve the issue.
"We would rather people take action before something terrible happens," Ryan said.
An investigation completed by the EPA in 2021 found that the soil was contaminated with things like arsenic, lead and copper.
"This water and all this water, flowed down the Verdugos, through the backyard and into my children's playground," Malone said.
The EPA said they found there is a minimal environmental risk with these contaminants but admits it has been challenging to get the property owner to clean up the soil since their survey.
The property owner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Neighbor Scout Raskin said she's also very concerned about the fire danger, especially since the 2017 La Tuna Fire burned through the property.
"If this canyon catches fire, it could burn not only all of our homes here, but it could go on the other side of the mountain and threaten the homes in Burbank," Raskin said.
Malone and her husband hope to keep fighting to clean up and protect what they call their piece of paradise.
