The Observer

A Haunting in The Hills

I recently watched Louis Rossmann’s “Don’t live with an employee’s mindset; create life as you want it to be.” Louis explains to the viewer the difference in mindset between people who when faced with hardship simply accept the situation and suffering, and people who decide that they want to change the situation for the better.

I visited the community of Val Verde to discover the truth surrounding the stories of a burning landfill choking the life out of residents. What I found while knocking on doors was an example in the ideology of Louis Rossmann.

While on the road to the Santa Clarita area from the city I noticed a chemical taste in my mouth. While driving up the road toward Val Verde I saw the white tarps covering the hillside. When I finally stepped out into the air, I smelled it, the unmistakable stench of Hydrogen Sulfide. It smells like rotten eggs. And these people just live in it.

While serving in our Navy, I was trained to recognize this gas. I was trained to immediately exit any space in which I thought this gas might be present because 3 breaths would be enough to kill me.

I wondered what could be done about this issue. I’m not a hazmat or landfill expert by any means. I decided to query some townsfolk to gain some sense of what it was like to live there. Of the dozen families who agreed to speak with me, exactly half of them reported that they were suffering from health complications which they directly attributed to the incident at the landfill. Some seemed quite pro-active in wanting to have something done to remedy the situation while others merely described it as something to bear.

I spoke with one man who had made the trip out to our States capital to lobby for some government assistance. Another man expressed his belief that if only the authorities responsible were motivated, this situation could be fixed. In reading on the subject from other outlets I gained the impression that the authorities seemed to be pushing the blame around, worried more about who would have to pay than the lives of the affected residents.

Among the reported health complications were headaches, dizziness, watery/burning eyes, skin sensitivity, a constant runny nose, and of course the infamous streak of cancer. It isn’t only H2S creeping through this neighborhood, but other chemicals as well. H2S is a product of decaying biomatter but a resident told me that he knows of a shady past of the landfill. He claimed that in the years before the shutdown, this landfill played host to waste which other landfills wouldn’t touch including discarded computer PCB’s and even nuclear waste. The chemical stench in the air seemed to agree.

Overall, I saw a community stricken by hardship but holding on to hope. Hope that something could finally be done to put this issue to rest for good. Some efforts have been made including closing the landfill and covering the area with tarps to prevent gases from seeping out. Through it all I saw a strong people who believed in family cookouts during the lulls in the stench. I hope that my visit can bring these people one step closer to closure.

A view of the tarp covered landfill from the road.

X @ the Observer, obsus.org 5/10/25