What California’s Landfill Safety Debate Reveals About Worker Protection and Accountability

Lessons From Sacramento’s Growing Debate Over Worker Protection and Environmental Accountability

During Worker Memorial Week, I joined lawmakers, worker advocates, environmental organizations, community leaders, and fellow attorneys at the California State Capitol to discuss an issue that deserves far more attention than it typically receives: the intersection of worker safety, landfill oversight, and community health.

The briefing, organized by Geoff Ellsworth, Co-Chair of CA LULAC’s Waste Worker Advocacy Committee, brought together stakeholders from across California who share concerns about workplace safety, environmental accountability, and the effectiveness of existing oversight systems.

Participants included Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, attorneys representing affected workers and residents, advocacy organizations, and community leaders focused on improving protections for both workers and the communities surrounding landfill operations.

While the discussion covered multiple issues, I left Sacramento convinced of one thing: worker safety, landfill accountability, and community health cannot be treated as separate conversations. They are fundamentally connected.

Workers Are Often the First to Experience System Failures

As an attorney representing workers, I have seen firsthand how safety concerns often emerge long before they become legislative priorities or public controversies.

The workers responsible for handling waste, operating heavy equipment, and managing landfill operations are frequently the first individuals exposed when safety systems break down.

During the Capitol briefing, I discussed litigation involving Waste Connections and 16 Spanish-speaking waste workers who allege they were exposed to hazardous conditions while performing their jobs.

The legal process will ultimately determine the merits of those claims. But the broader questions raised by the case deserve attention regardless of the outcome.

Are workers receiving adequate training? Do they have access to proper protective equipment? Are safety concerns being addressed before injuries occur? Are employers, regulators, and policymakers doing enough to identify emerging risks?

Those questions extend far beyond any single employer, lawsuit, or facility. They speak to how California approaches worker protection in industries where environmental and occupational risks often overlap.

The Connection Between Worker Safety and Community Health

One of the most important themes discussed at the Capitol was the growing recognition that workplace safety and community health are often interconnected.

Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo and other participants highlighted concerns regarding landfill conditions and their potential impact on surrounding communities.

Discussions also referenced ongoing concerns involving Chiquita Canyon Landfill, where residents have reported odors, health symptoms, and other impacts that have drawn attention from regulators, lawmakers, and community advocates. Attorney Oshea Orchid and her firm currently represent thousands of residents who have raised concerns related to conditions surrounding the landfill.

While worker advocates and community advocates may approach these issues from different perspectives, the underlying concern is often the same.

When conditions deteriorate inside a landfill, the consequences rarely remain confined to the facility itself. Workers may be exposed first. Communities may feel the effects later. But both are impacted by the same underlying failures in oversight, prevention, and accountability.

Why Legislative Attention Matters

Several legislative proposals discussed during the Capitol meetings reflect growing awareness that stronger safeguards may be necessary.

Among them are Assembly Bill 2321, which seeks to strengthen the investigation and prosecution of serious workplace incidents, and Assembly Bill 28, the Landfill Fire Safety Act, which would establish additional monitoring requirements for elevated temperature events in municipal solid waste landfills.

Assembly Bill 2488 was also discussed as part of broader conversations regarding staffing shortages affecting California’s workplace safety enforcement system.

These proposals represent meaningful steps toward addressing concerns raised by workers, advocates, and communities. But legislation alone is rarely enough.

Throughout my career, I have seen situations where regulations existed on paper but failed to protect workers in practice.

The effectiveness of any safety law ultimately depends on enforcement, accountability, and the resources available to the agencies responsible for carrying it out. Without those elements, even well-intentioned reforms can fall short.

The Accountability Challenge

One concern repeatedly raised during discussions in Sacramento involved the complexity of California’s regulatory structure.

Responsibility for worker safety, environmental oversight, hazardous waste management, and landfill regulation often spans multiple agencies.

While each agency serves an important purpose, fragmented oversight can sometimes create uncertainty regarding responsibility and accountability.

That concern was echoed by multiple advocates throughout the event, including Geoff Ellsworth and members of the CA LULAC Waste Worker Advocacy Committee, who have emphasized the need for clearer coordination among agencies responsible for protecting workers and communities.

Improving oversight is not simply a matter of passing new laws. It also requires ensuring that agencies communicate effectively, enforce existing standards consistently, and respond quickly when concerns arise.

Looking Beyond Individual Cases

One of the challenges in discussing worker safety is that public attention often focuses on individual incidents.

A lawsuit is filed. A workplace injury occurs. A regulatory investigation begins.

But meaningful reform requires looking beyond any single event.

The question policymakers should be asking is not simply whether a particular incident occurred. The question is whether the systems designed to prevent those incidents are functioning effectively.

That is the conversation I believe California should continue having.

What Comes Next

Advocates are expected to return to Sacramento in August for additional discussions regarding landfill safety, worker protections, and pending legislation.

The CA LULAC Waste Worker Advocacy Committee is also expected to submit recommendations to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency regarding concerns raised by workers and advocates.

Those efforts matter because they move the conversation beyond reacting to problems after they occur. The goal should be preventing harm before workers are injured and before communities are impacted.

For me, that has always been the larger objective.

Litigation can create accountability. Legislation can create standards. But lasting progress requires a broader commitment to prevention, oversight, and worker protection.

California has an opportunity to lead on these issues.

The question is whether we are willing to address the underlying causes of safety failures before the next preventable injury, illness, or tragedy forces the issue back into the spotlight.