By Scott Schwebke
On a blustery blue morning in early June, Beth Worrell scampered up a 10-foot-tall, woodchip-covered berm that juts for more than a quarter-mile from the dusty Mojave Desert floor just inside the Kern County line near unincorporated Neenach.
Worrell paused briefly at the top of the giant mound and then disappeared down the other side. A few minutes later, she reemerged, clutching a handful of unlikely treasures.
“I’m making a collage for Kristina,” Worrell said wryly as she placed a plastic baby bottle, a metal rod, a rusty pair of pliers, and a used syringe in the dirt with her bare hands.
Worrell’s friends, Kristina Brown of Fairmont and Ashley Mroz of Neenach, are engaged in a legal battle against Southern California’s waste management industry over the Kern dump site and others like it scattered throughout the Antelope Valley.
A federal lawsuit filed by the pair in April aims to rid the desert of thousands of tons of household construction, demolition and solid waste disguised as mulch that has been illegally dumped for decades in the far reaches of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Kern counties.
Brown and Mroz allege Arakelian Enterprises Inc., doing business as Athens Services; Universal Waste Systems Inc.; California Waste Services, LLC; Organic Energy Solutions, LLC; and America’s Recycling Co. Inc. are violating federal environmental laws by collecting trash from contracted Los Angeles-area cities and then discarding it in the Antelope Valley to skirt expensive landfill fees.
“These sites have been used to bury large amounts of solid waste without the oversight or safeguards required by law,” said Washington, D.C., environmental attorney Zachary Kelsay, who is representing Brown and Mroz. “These conditions pose a serious threat to public health and safety, including increased risk of fire, airborne toxins and groundwater contamination. Our goal is to ensure these sites are remediated so they no longer endanger the surrounding neighborhoods or environment.”
Athens, which has a 15-year, $687 million contract with Los Angeles to process residential organic waste, denies any wrongdoing.
“Athens does not engage in illegal dumping as alleged. Athens’ organic material goes through a comprehensive process at our advanced compost facilities,” the company said in an email. “The material is routinely tested for compliance with CalRecycle’s standards, and our processing facilities are regularly inspected for adherence with state regulations.”
Diversion records for the city of Los Angeles show that from 2021 to 2024, Crown Recycling Services in Sun Valley, which is owned by Athens, shipped thousands of tons of waste to Cal Spreading for the Three Points dump site near Neenach, which is on the L.A. County side of the border with Kern.
Additionally, in May 2024, San Bernardino County issued a notice of violation to Athens-owned American Organics for illegal dumping at a vacant parcel in El Mirage.
Bill Love, chief of BioStar Renewables, which is the parent company of Organic Energy Solutions, also denied the lawsuit’s allegations.
“Material leaving our facility is regularly tested by an independent laboratory and subjected to regular government inspection,” Love said. “Test results consistently show that material leaving our facility tests below legal limits for metals and other contaminants. While others may be engaged in improper activities, BioStar is committed to clean, renewable energy and is confident that the truth will demonstrate that BioStar’s conduct has been safe and ethical.”
California Waste Services President Eric Casper said his company has never dumped construction, demolition or household waste in the Antelope Valley or anywhere else.
The remaining companies named as defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
Although the suit targets six major dumpsites, more than 100 others of various sizes have been identified in the Antelope Valley, Kelsay said.
One prolific dump totaling 160 acres in the community of Fairmont previously belonged to Sean Irwin of Ventura, who owns Cal Spreading LLC. Irwin, who is also a defendant in the suit and did not respond to requests for comment, is accused of partnering with several companies to illegally dispose of waste.
Health, environment at risk
A Southern California News Group review of hundreds of pages of environmental reports and emails, along with numerous photographs and videos, reveals the immense toll of unregulated dumping in the Antelope Valley.
Aside from the obvious eyesore of piles of smelly waste towering more than 30 feet high in some spots, serious health and environmental threats lurk in the air and the soil.
“When the trucks were coming in and dumping, you could see the plumes of dirt in the air,” said Mroz, who lives about 1 1/2 miles from the Three Points dumpsite. “Who knows what we were breathing in?”
The Three Points site is a mere 528 feet from a main water well that serves Neenach’s 798 residents. None of the illegal dumps is equipped with protective liners to prevent groundwater contamination, Kelsay said.
From 2020 to 2024, self-combustible wood chips and organic materials used to camouflage garbage as mulch have sparked 42 fires, costing taxpayers more than $1.6 million to extinguish and exposing downwind Antelope Valley residents to toxic smoke, contaminated dust and airborne particulates, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Plans to use mobile cameras, license plate readers and drones to monitor hotspots and catch offenders have been adopted.
The dumping problem also has been exacerbated by loopholes in state law that initially limited enforcement to landowners instead of haulers and waste generators. Additionally, there has been an oversupply of green waste tied to state mandates without sufficient end-use markets, Barger said.
Illegal dumping on public and private property is punishable
by a fine of up to $10,000 and six months in jail.
“The large geographic area of the Antelope Valley results in fewer resources allocated per square mile,” Barger said. “As a result, services like waste management and law enforcement are spread thin, leaving illegal dumpers with fewer deterrents.”
Mysterious mulch sparks complaints
Although the history of Antelope Valley dumping is well-documented, Brown, who is a makeup artist, was nevertheless caught off guard on the night of Jan. 3, 2024, when a convoy of big rigs rumbled along a dirt road next to her two-bedroom home.
The desolate 12-acre property, dubbed Desert Ranch, is dotted with tumbleweeds, a windmill, several adobe outbuildings and fields of colorful poppies nearby. It has been featured in photo shoots and is a filming location.
After passing Brown’s house, the trucks turned onto an adjoining field that belonged to Irwin, the Cal Spreading LLC owner.
For several weeks, Brown and her ex-husband, Colin Roddick, watched in disbelief as more than 30 to 50 trucks a day arrived at the property before 6 a.m. to well after dark and unloaded massive quantities of a mysterious gray-colored material that seemed to have no agricultural purpose.
“We are not farmers, but it didn’t look right,” Brown said.
