Hearing on Plan to Truck Waste Delayed

A hearing on a controversial plan to truck septic tank waste from throughout Los Angeles and adjoining areas to a sewage-treatment facility in the Sepulveda Basin has been postponed.

At the request of the city Bureau of Sanitation, the public hearing set for Tuesday before the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee was rescheduled for Sept. 14, a staff assistant to the committee said Tuesday.

Opponents of the plan, which calls for between 90 and 200 trucks to deliver sewage daily to the bureau’s Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, say it threatens the Valley’s premier park space with noise, traffic and odor problems.

“There is no wisdom in bringing up to 200 sewage trucks per day into the Sepulveda Basin,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of the Homeowners of Encino, one in a coalition of homeowner and environmental groups opposed to the plan. “There is no reason the basin should be the cesspool for the entire city of L. A.”

While sanitation officials have played down any environmental threat to the park, they say they understand the objections. “That’s why we asked for the postponement,” said Sam Furuta, deputy director of the Bureau of Sanitation. “We expect to address all of the issues.”

In an attempt to block the plan, the coalition has appealed a special permit awarded by the Planning Commission in April that allows the Bureau of Sanitation to widen an access road to the plant, which is needed to accommodate the proposed increased truck traffic.