Garden May Be Tapped Out : Arleta: The DWP tells community farmers to pay about $2,700 a year.

Forget aphids, leaf rot and snails. The Arleta Garden Club is trying to swat down what it claims is a worse pest--the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

But the DWP says it’s the garden club that’s the root of the problem.

The two are haggling over the terms of an agreement that will determine if the club continues farming two acres of right of way under the DWP’s high-voltage transmission lines. Club members have been sowing fruits and vegetables in the shadow of the silvery towers off Canterbury Avenue for the past 17 years, but are now refusing to accept the DWP’s new conditions for remaining.

The standoff began late last year when the DWP discovered that it had mistakenly paid for about $35,000 worth of water used by the club since 1976 in the northern section of the garden, said DWP spokeswoman MaryAnne Pierson. The mistake was discovered when pipes on the property began leaking, she said.

The department also found out that it may have paid part of the water bill for some of the other five community gardens that use its rights of way throughout the city, Pierson said. She said the department is investigating its arrangements with garden clubs in Granada Hills and South-Central Los Angeles.

In Arleta, the DWP expects the garden club to begin footing the water bill, which at current rates comes to about $2,700 annually, Pierson said. If the club wants to stay, members would also have to stop planting within 50 feet of the transmission towers and widen a dirt road through the garden, which would displace 134 of the group’s 550 plots. The club would also have to furnish the agency with a list of all its members’ names and addresses, and mow a DWP-owned strip of grass between the garden fence and the street, Pierson said.

Many of the club’s 75 members are senior citizens or poor, and cannot afford the additional water costs, said gardenmaster David Winseman. The $8 per-plot fee the club charges would go up to $20--a significant increase for the many who rent more than a dozen plots apiece, Winseman said.

“We have members here who are retired on fixed incomes, some who don’t even have a job and depend on the plots to feed their families,” Winseman said. “If we have to pay, it’ll be certain death to our club.”

The group wants the DWP to continue paying for the water, partly because the water is used to irrigate DWP-owned oleanders and other landscaping.

The club has gained a powerful ally in Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes part of Arleta. A representative of Wachs helped the club gain a one-month reprieve until Feb. 25 to sign the new agreement with the DWP. In the meantime, Wachs’ office is trying to find a source of funds to pay for the water.

“Joel wants the garden club to stay,” said Mark Freed, one of his field deputies. “It’s an asset to the community.”

But some neighbors have complained about the smell of manure emanating from the garden and other problems, including public urination, said Freed, adding that those problems will have to be resolved. About 10 of the 20 neighbors who responded to a recent mail-in survey conducted by the DWP complained about the garden, Pierson said.

But club members say that they prevent the area from becoming an eyesore.

“This place would be a garbage heap if we weren’t here, with people throwing bottles and who knows what else out here,” said Charlie Zies, 78, who has been cultivating 18 plots since the club began using the land.