SUN VALLEY : Wachs to Push for Collection Expansion

Councilman Joel Wachs said he will ask the City Council today to expand a Sun Valley grass-clipping collection program. The councilman also said he will introduce a motion to increase city pickup of horse manure throughout the San Fernando Valley.

The city began a pilot program six months ago to continue to make manure pickups to about 1,800 households throughout the Valley after the city switched to an automated service.

The manure pickup, which requires an extra run for city trucks, is provided free until the city devises prices and a new billing system. Wachs proposes to expand the service to all horse-owners in the northeastern Valley.

But Drew Sones, division manager for recycling in the city’s waste-reduction division for the Bureau of Sanitation, said that would be difficult to do.

“There about 10,000 horses registered in the city right now, and we’re picking up only 1,800 homes,” Sones said. “That’s why we have a moratorium right now. We don’t know how many horse owners who use private collection now will want to switch over.”

Wachs also wants a limit lifted for another pilot project in which grass clippings and other yard waste is dropped off at a collection point on Tuxford Street in Sun Valley.

The city limited each household to one load of yard trimmings each weekend because of concerns that commercial landscapers were using the program to drop off their yard waste.