El Segundo, L.A. to Talk on Sewer Plant Problems

Despite their anger at problems caused by construction at the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant, El Segundo City Council members have agreed to meet again with Los Angeles officials before imposing new restrictions on the work.

After listening to several homeowners testify during a public hearing that the work has caused serious damage to their homes, the council instructed Mayor Carl Jacobson and Councilman Bob Anderson to meet with Edward Avila, president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, to negotiate changes in the construction agreement worked out by the two cities.

“We have a major problem here, and it’s an ongoing problem,” Jacobson told Avila during the hearing. “This needs to be resolved promptly.”

The council was poised to revise the construction agreement drastically, but it voted to delay any action until next Tuesday after Avila said Los Angeles objected to several of the proposed revisions as impractical. Among them was one that calls for homeowner claims under $10,000 be settled within a month and all others within three months.

Before construction work began, the Los Angeles City Council established a $2-million fund to cover damage claims.

“I don’t want to be contentious at all,” Avila told the El Segundo council. “I want to solve the problems.”

Number of Conditions

Last January, council members granted a conditional-use permit to build a new sedimentation tank at Hyperion after Los Angeles agreed to abide by a number of conditions to make sure that residents would not be disturbed. Los Angeles needs the permit because 6% of the tank will be in El Segundo.

In recent weeks, however, a number of homeowners have complained that vibrations from construction equipment have produced cracks in their homes on the bluffs overlooking the 153-acre plant. Others say the exteriors of their homes have been blanketed by blowing sand, and that construction has occurred on Sundays, in violation of the agreement.

As a result, El Segundo council members instructed the Planning Commission to determine whether the agreement should be revoked or modified. Last month, the commission recommended that Los Angeles be forced to adhere to several new conditions, including the timetable for claim payments and hiring an ombudsman--at Los Angeles’ expense--to handle complaints.

Craig Wilder, who lives on West Pine Street, told council members Tuesday that his home has sustained $30,000 in damage since the construction began. He said he has received no assurances from Los Angeles officials that the city will pay for the damage, which he described as cracks in the walls. Nor, he said, has he received any assistance when he telephoned a 24-hour hot line established by Hyperion to help residents.

“You get someone who doesn’t know why he is on the other end of the phone,” Wilder said.

2 Walls Damaged

Another homeowner, Gerald McKenzie, told council members that two walls at his home, also on Pine Street, had been damaged by vibrations caused by construction equipment. He said an engineer has determined that the walls could collapse at any time.

“If the ‘dozers go back up there, there’s a chance” they might fall, he said.

Los Angeles officials have conceded that the city has violated its agreement with El Segundo, in particular by failing to police the contractor adequately to ensure that sand is wetted down to prevent it from blowing onto homes.

As for the vibrations, however, Los Angeles engineers have insisted that they should not cause any structural damage to homes.

Stronger Than Expected

But more recently, the engineers have conceded that the vibrations, which are expected to last at least another five months, have been stronger than expected. Ralph Kennedy, the Los Angeles city engineer overseeing the Hyperion work, told El Segundo council members Tuesday that the bulldozers have been slowed down in an attempt to reduce the shaking.

“Let’s talk about the problems and get them solved,” Kennedy said. “Let’s not leave them as festering sores.”

The tank, which will increase the plant’s primary sewage treatment capacity by 25%, is needed to comply with a federal court order. Completion is scheduled for early 1992.