New Route Studied for Golf Course Pipeline

Golfers won a round Monday in their fight to block a pipeline from being routed across the city-owned Woodley Golf Course in Van Nuys when a Los Angeles City Council panel endorsed a $40,000 study of an alignment around the links.

But the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee also demanded that it be involved in the final selection of a route for the pipeline, which is to carry treated effluent from the nearby Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in the Sepulveda Basin.

The treated effluent will be used to fill the new and still empty Balboa Lake, a recreational facility, and to irrigate the basin’s golf courses and playing fields.

The $40,000 will pay for the city’s preparation of a second set of bid specifications for installing the pipeline around the periphery of the Woodley links.

Originally, the city’s Bureau of Engineering had recommended running the pipeline straight across the course. The direct route would be $700,000 cheaper than the peripheral one, according to estimates by Bob Hoori, engineering bureau chief.

On Monday, Hoori said the extra cost might be as low as $400,000. He said the best way to learn the cost differential would be to put both routes out to bid.

Councilman Joel Wachs, the committee’s chairman, warned that he is “not disposed to spend a half-million dollars” just to avoid inconveniencing golfers.

Parks Department chief James Hadaway predicted that disrupting Woodley would alienate golfers and result in lost green fee revenues.

Marty Tregnan, president of the city’s Municipal Golfers Assn., said after the meeting that golfers would be willing to pay a surcharge on current greens fees to cover the entire cost of a more expensive alignment.