Dozen Wells to be Built Near Closed Arleta Dump : Water: Residents fear that toxic materials could seep from the dump into their water supply. City water officials say contamination is not a threat.

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a controversial plan to drill 12 water wells in Arleta to replace contaminated North Hollywood wells, despite the project’s proximity to a closed garbage dump.

The $33-million Tujunga Well Field Project, which has drawn scattered opposition from nearby residents, was approved without dissent by the council.

Several council members said the wells would provide much-needed drinkable water for all sections of Los Angeles.

However, Gordon Murley of Woodland Hills, representing the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., questioned whether water from the wells in the 8800 block of Arleta Avenue could be guaranteed to be pure, since the site is about 3,000 feet from the closed Sheldon-Arleta landfill.

Unlike modern dumps, the bottom of the Sheldon-Arleta facility was not lined to prevent seepage, and Murley and others suggest that toxic materials could percolate down to the water supply.

City water officials “have never been able to say where the contamination” that has forced closure of nearby wells “comes from,” Murley said.

But Duane L. Georgeson, Department of Water and Power assistant general manager, said, “We’ve checked carefully, and at present there is no contamination. We are confident that the project can be constructed with no threat to the water supply of our customers.”

Georgeson said the water will be tested regularly for contamination.

Even if limited contamination is discovered, he said, the water supply can be filtered or diluted with water from other sources to keep it drinkable, he said.

At a hearing last month before the council’s Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee, several residents complained that noise from the well pumps would disturb them in their homes and would lower property values.

They also complained that a 3-million-gallon water storage tank to be built as part of the project will visually blight their residential neighborhood.