Informed Opinions on Today’s Topics : Septic Tank Dumping in Valley Debated

The Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation received approval in 1989 for a plan in which trucks would haul the city’s septic tank waste to a dumping facility in the San Fernando Valley’s Sepulveda Basin in order to control and monitor such waste. Area homeowners and environmental activists have opposed the facility, complaining that it would blight the Valley’s largest recreation area and that it was approved without public reaction. J. P. Ellman, a newly appointed Board of Public Works commissioner, has said she will ask the board to consider ordering an environmental impact report at a hearing Oct. 22.

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Should septic tank waste be dumped in a Sepulveda Basin treatment plant?

Peter Ireland, president of the Coalition to Save Sepulveda Basin:

“The Sepulveda Basin is the Valley’s largest and most important park. It serves the largest number of visitors on any given day. It essentially functions as the lungs of the San Fernando Valley. It shouldn’t be turned into another part of the anatomy. There’sprobably half a dozen common-sense alternatives that should be looked at.” Bob Hayes, public information director for the Los Angeles Board of Public Works:

“It’s not in the park. You already have a treatment plant out there that processes sewage. What does it matter that you are now going to have the same trucks with the same sewage pumping it directly into the plant? A sewer is a sewer. A treatment plant is a treatment plant. . . . I have not seen anybody complain about the Tillman Reclamation Plant being in the Sepulveda Basin.”

Sandy Wohlgemuth, conservation chair of the Los Angeles Audubon Society:

“The public was left out of this whole thing. It was just stupidity. The environmental impact report, if done properly, would present everything--the good things and the bad things. (The Sepulveda Basin) is a people’s park. This thing just doesn’t belong there.”

Paul Walker, owner of Tujunga-based Walker & Sons Sewer Service:

“We’re against it. (The city) made people believe the purpose of this central location is so that they can monitor what goes into the sewer system. The locations we dump in now are located in strategic areas around the Valley. The city should be able to monitor the ones they have now.”

Laura Chick, city councilwoman whose district includes parts of Canoga Park, Encino and Woodland Hills:

“I have been emphasizing the need for a full EIR on this project since my campaign for office. I believe that the approval process and environmental review for this project was badly flawed and must be reopened. . . . The EIR would include a careful consideration of alternative sites for the proposed facility.”

Dave Allen, general manager of Wastec, a group of three Calabasas-based septic tank pumping businesses:

“As a septic pumping company, we have to be against it. The problem we have with it is that they’re trying to make the pumping companies an enforcement arm of (the sanitation bureau). We’re too big. We can’t do anything illegal. But there will always be someone who will.”

Jill Swift, longtime Valley environmental activist:

“They chose one site and the whole process circumvented the normal environmental impact report process. That is not what the California Environmental Quality Act is all about. It’s supposed to give the public an opportunity to review the alternatives. We are not disagreeing with consolidation. We are not disagreeing with monitoring.”