Environmental Report Is Ordered on Septic Tank Waste Disposal Site : Sewage: Public works board takes action as work on $2-million Sepulveda Basin plant nears completion.

To the delight of environmentalists, the Los Angeles Board of Public Works voted unanimously Friday to launch an environmental study on the impact of a nearly completed dumping site for septic tank waste in the Sepulveda Basin.

The board’s vote followed an appeal by Councilwoman Laura Chick to study several possible environmental side effects of the project at the basin’s existing sewage treatment plant, including excessive truck traffic and contamination of parkland next to the facility.

The study, which will take at least a year to complete, will delay the planned April, 1994, opening of the site.

Chick, who first voiced opposition to the project during her successful race to unseat former Councilwoman Joy Picus in June, said an environmental study is needed because “the community has not been adequately informed and consulted about this project and several valid environmental questions about the project still need to be answered.”

In addition to being praised by environmentalists, the board’s vote to complete an environmental study also was lauded by Mayor Richard Riordan.

“I am pleased that the Board of Public Works has taken this action and that it has responded to the concerns of Valley residents,” he said.

Under the septic tank program, a new facility at the Donald C. Tillman Water Treatment Plant in the Sepulveda Basin would be used as a central dumping spot for 90 to 200 daily truckloads of waste collected from residential septic tanks throughout the San Fernando Valley and adjacent cities, including Calabasas and Malibu.

City sanitation officials say the project would allow them more control over what is dumped into city sewers and enable them to charge septic tank customers for the real costs of treating their effluent. Currently, waste from septic tanks is dumped directly into the city’s sewer system at seven manholes throughout the city, making it difficult to monitor what ends up in the sewers.

The project was approved without an environmental impact report in 1989 and already, about $2 million has been spent modifying the Tillman plant to handle the septic tank waste. The work is virtually completed.

Environmentalists and nearby homeowners began to appeal for further environmental reviews after most of the approvals already were made. Their concerns centered around the possible damage the facility will have on nearby parkland.

On Friday, those environmentalists said they considered the board’s vote a positive step toward protecting the Sepulveda Basin.

Muriel S. Kotin, a member of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the Audubon Society, said an environmental study will allow residents to recommend ways to lessen environmental side effects.

“We could do things a lot differently with people’s input,” she said.

The cost of the environmental study, which will include alternative sites for the facility, will be about $500,000.

City sanitation officials say the septic tank treatment program is needed to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules, which require the city to maintain strong controls over what goes into the sewer system and to see that all users pay their fair share of the costs of the city’s vast sewage treatment system.

Newly appointed board Commissioner J.P. Ellman, the only Valley resident on the board, said the septic tank program would help control the amount of sewage dumped into the Santa Monica Bay.

“The board has an obligation--a very serious obligation--on what goes into the Santa Monica Bay,” she said.