Force trash cleanup
Re: Article "Trash fouls canyon trails" Jan. 28:

I have lived in Pasadena for over 50 years, and only lately have I noticed the appalling trash that fills the canyon trails.

I am distressed because the culprits, La Vina Development and Campass Homes Construction Company, have not taken responsibility for their carelessness! They should be fined and made to clean up all their litter. We don't need this trash to mar the beauty of our mountains or the Los Angeles River. I hope the authorities will make them clean it up and fine them!

Rechelle D. Lubanski
Pasadena

Canyon is trashed
This letter is about the debris in Millard Canyon. Building homes is not a crime, but if a company's workers are neglectful with trash that should be a crime. The winds pick up the debris and scatters trash all over the place.

Millard Canyon is a nice camping area, a place to get away from the city. All of a sudden it has turned into a giant trash can. I think if the Compass Homes workers aren't made to pick up their trash, Millard Canyon won't be a nice camping area for long.

Chelsea Thordarson
Pasadena Christian School

Keep our world clean
Re: Jan. 28 front page "Trash fouls canyon trails."

The problem of the trash all over Millard Canyon can be blamed on the La Vina Development in Altadena. It seems the windstorms have blown a lot of the trash into Millard Canyon. A lot of the bits and pieces of insulation are blown here and there.

I am glad that people who live in that area are helping to pick up the debris. I feel the people that hike in Millard Canyon should also help pick up the trash. If the wind picks up the trash it will get into the creek and then the ocean and can cause a lot more problems. Please help to keep our world clean.

Colette Brown, Age 9
Pasadena Christian School

County priorities lamentable
The juxtaposition of two local stories on the front page of the Jan. 28 issue of the Star-News vividly illustrates the county's failure to address issues of environmental degradation in Altadena.

At the top of the page is the story of how trash from construction at the La Vina development is fouling scenic Millard Canyon. At the bottom is the sad tale of the bulldozing of Tim Dundon's compost heap.

Disregarding the fact that the neighbors haven't complained about Dundon's mountain of compost and disregarding its lack of odor or the fact that it is barely visible from the street because of all the greenery that has grown over it, the county has begun its destruction. In doing so it is winning, at last, a war it has waged against Dundon since 1978.

The reasons given by the county for its sustained belligerence are that the compost heap is a fire hazard (and apparently has been for over 20 years) and that Dundon is operating an illegal fertilizing business. The second claim seems a ludicrous trumped-up charge. If Dundon is operating a lucrative business why is he still renting? Why hasn't he been able to hire a high-powered attorney to fend off the county?

Now let's compare and contrast the county's actions with regard to the La Vina development. In the process of the construction of this blight on the hillside, several live-oak trees have been destroyed, and, as the story illustrated, trash from this development is now fouling Millard Canyon this despite the fact that it was a condition in the agreement with the county that materials from the construction of the project were not to spill over into the canyon.

The Star-News quoted Bruce Quintelier of the Forest Services as saying that all they could do was to give the polluters a citation, which he thought would have little financial impact. Let me suggest to Quintelier what else he and the county of Los Angeles might do. They might take Compass Homes to court and get a court order requiring the company to pay a fine, clean up their mess and to desist from further pollution.

Then the court should follow up with contempt-of-court citations should Compass Homes fail to comply with even one of these orders. The judge could then sentence the executives of the company to ten days in jail for each contempt of court charge.

The county forced the destruction of Dundon's compost heap by threatening his landlords, officials of the Mountain View Cemetery, with fines and jail time if the pile wasn't removed. The threat of jail time, imposed either by the county or the Forest Service, would certainly stop Compass Homes from polluting. It is, after all, easier for the county to bully Tim Dundon than it is for them to make a real difference by taking on a developer.

County and federal officials have thus far failed to protect the foothills, though they have the power to do so. But at least they have acted to guard us against the twin threat of compost heaps and live-oak trees.

Tim Callahan
Altadena