Harbor Not Affected by Growth Law : Other Parts of L.A. Escape Curbs to Protect Hyperion

Despite a slow-growth measure signed this week by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley that drastically reduces the amount of development allowed in the city, it will be building as usual in several Los Angeles communities in the South Bay.

Wilmington, San Pedro, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway--as well as Watts and much of South Los Angeles--are not affected by the landmark ordinance, which is designed to head off a surge in sewage flow to the city’s Hyperion treatment plant near Playa del Rey. Sewage from the unaffected communities is treated at other plants.

Portions of El Segundo--which is an independent city--will fall within the Los Angeles building restrictions because some of its sewage flows to Hyperion. The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to extend the restrictions to the 27 cities and agencies that are connected to the Los Angeles sewer system--a vote that has angered El Segundo officials.

Extent of Restrictions

Sewage from Harbor Gateway and most of Harbor City is treated at a county plant in Carson, while flows from San Pedro, Wilmington and southern Harbor City go to a city plant on Terminal Island. Waste from the other Los Angeles communities in the South Bay--Playa del Rey and Westchester--is treated at Hyperion, meaning the new growth restrictions apply to those communities.

Other cities in the South Bay are served by county sanitation districts not affected by the new ordinance.

Los Angeles officials said they did not extend the growth controls--which officials say could slow construction by 30%--to the harbor area because new projects there have not contributed to the city’s growing sewage crisis.

The city’s treatment problems center on Hyperion, which officials project would reach capacity by 1990 without the new restrictions.

“In terms of treatment capacity, there is not a problem” in the harbor area, said Frank Grant, a waste-water planning manager for the city’s Bureau of Engineering. “The Terminal Island plant was built when there were a lot of ideas for industrial development, which has not materialized. We are not operating at capacity down there.”

21 Million Gallons a Day

Terminal Island plant manager Norm Hanson said the plant treats 21 million gallons of sewage a day--a level that has remained constant for about six years. The plant was built to handle 30 million gallons a day.

By contrast, Hyperion handles 440 million gallons a day, and in recent years, the average daily flow has grown by 10 million gallons every year. Officials say Hyperion can effectively handle 460 million gallons a day.

The city is expanding its third treatment facility--the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys--to handle increased sewage flows that Hyperion will be unable to treat when it reaches capacity.

Harry Sizemore, assistant director of the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, said there are no plans to expand the Terminal Island facility or to divert sewage from Hyperion to that plant.

“There are no interconnecting pipelines between the two systems,” Sizemore said. “It certainly would not be economically viable to do that for the small amount of flow that could be treated there.”

Business and political leaders in the harbor area have reacted with a sense of relief to the area’s exclusion from the new restrictions.

In San Pedro, for example, a Chamber of Commerce official said the business community is pleased that several long-awaited projects--the proposed downtown Sheraton hotel, for example--will not face delays because of sewage-flow restrictions.

Under the ordinance signed by Bradley, construction within affected portions of the city will be allowed to add 5 million gallons to the average daily sewage flow at Hyperion in a single year.

The 5-million gallon allocation will be broken down into monthly allowances. Once the monthly limit is reached, no more building permits will be issued until the next month--meaning developers could have to wait in line for permission to build.

Harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores expressed hope that the area’s unusual status within the ordinance will attract “quality” developers who otherwise might not consider building in depressed areas of Wilmington, Watts and South Los Angeles.

In particular, Flores said she intends to emphasize the lack of sewer restrictions when she talks to developers about the Wilmington Industrial Park, which has had difficulty attracting businesses.

“If it is going to help me at all, that is probably the first place it will help,” Flores said. “We have always felt that we would welcome well-balanced development that is compatible with what the community needs and wants. . . This will allow us to be a little choosy about what we get, while perhaps bringing in some quality development that will bring employment and economic benefits to the community.”

Compatibility Stressed

Dennis Lord, president of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, said there has been little discussion in Wilmington about the implications of the new sewer restrictions, but he said the chamber encourages commercial and industrial development that does not contribute to the community’s “disorganization,” a zoning patchwork that has allowed factories to be built next to residential neighborhoods.

“I guess we are pretty fortunate,” said Lord, who described Hyperion as a problem for other parts of the city. “We have always been treated like a separate entity by the city, and I guess in this case that will work to our advantage.”

It is unlikely, however, that the city’s new restrictions will alter the overall competition among South Bay cities for so-called “quality” development, several officials said.

Leron Gubler, executive director of the San Pedro-Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, said San Pedro, for example, competes with Long Beach and Torrance for new commercial development more than with other communities in the city of Los Angeles. Both Long Beach and Torrance are served by county sanitation districts unaffected by the new restrictions.

“People who specifically want to do a project within the city of Los Angeles may find it more desirable now to look here,” Gubler said. “But if they are looking to build somewhere in the South Bay, this won’t make a difference.”

Displeasure Known

In El Segundo, city officials are uncertain what effect the new restrictions will have on their city, but they have notified Los Angeles city officials about their displeasure.

Under the ordinance approved by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, development west of Sepulveda Boulevard would fall within the restrictions because sewage from that part of El Segundo is treated at Hyperion.

William Glickman, director of public works in El Segundo, said the restrictions call for a limit on increased sewage flows of 1.33% per year from the area west of Sepulveda. The increase will be limited to 0.33% of the existing flows each quarter. He said El Segundo has not yet worked out a way to implement the restrictions.

The El Segundo city attorney is reviewing the new law and the city’s sewer contract with Los Angeles to see if the restrictions are legal, he said.

“Cities today are all concerned about growth, but they want to develop their own forms of growth control,” Glickman said. “To have other jurisdictions dictate your growth controls doesn’t seem appropriate.”

Flows Reduced

Two years ago, El Segundo cut its flows to Hyperion by 30% by diverting sewage east of Sepulveda Boulevard to trunk lines owned by the county sanitation districts, Glickman said.

El Segundo currently dumps about 2 million gallons a day into sewers that flow to Hyperion, even though its contract with Los Angeles allows a daily flow of 2.75 million, he said.

“It is not fair to us,” he said. “We already reduced our flows, and now they are saying we have to do it more.”

The Los Angeles growth-control ordinances will come up for review in nine months, at which point the City Council can extend them an additional six months.

At that time, the council is expected to consider more permanent measures that may restrict growth based on factors other than sewage capacity--such as traffic and overdevelopment.