Reasons Behind Well Proposal Snag

The Oct. 11 article “Sun Valley Well Proposal Hits Snag” failed to tell your readers why the snag occurred and how the two councilmen, Hal Bernson and Robert Farrell, clashed over environmental and conditional-use issues related to Water & Power’s proposed well field project.

In August, as chairman of the Federation of Organizations for Conserving Urban Space, an environmental watchdog group, I filed an appeal to the City Council from a Planning Commission conditional-use decision, which permitted the utility to site their well field next to the leaking Sheldon-Arleta landfill.

The FOCUS appeal opposed the failure of the Planning Commission to impose conditions that would protect the well field from possible landfill pollution. The Planning Commission approved the hearing examiner’s report, which acknowledged that well-field pollution was a possibility if the project were moved closer to the landfill.

The commission also accepted as a condition the mixing of the well water with higher quality aqueduct water as a suitable water quality mitigation measure. Had FOCUS failed to file the appeal and organize the Sun Valley residents, the Department of Water and Power would have started to build the questionable well field.

At the Planning and Environment Committee hearing, which was chaired by Councilman Bernson, I informed the committee that the Sheldon-Arleta landfill is unsealed at bottom and that it is the opinion of the hydro-geologist who toured the site that the 100-cubic-feet-per-second pumping rate will cause the polluted water under the landfill to migrate into the well field.

On hearing the FOCUS Report, Councilman Farrell said he wanted the committee report to the City Council to include the potential threat to water quality as a conditional-use matter. Bernson refused to incorporate Farrell’s suggestion into the report, with Farrell responding, “I agree with Mr. Man; the people of my district, the residents of East and West Los Angeles who’ll be drinking the mixed well water, deserve a full investigation of this Water and Power proposal.”

Bernson persisted in his refusal to accept Farrell’s suggestion. With Farrell refusing to support Bernson’s contention that water quality was strictly an environmental issue, Bernson said he’d refer the matter to the Environmental and Waste Management Committee and ask its members consider the proposal’s potential environmental problems.

Hopefully, questions will now be asked and answers given, due to our investigative and political work.

ALEXANDER M. MAN

Santa Monica