OK of Septic Tank Disposal Site Delayed : Sepulveda Basin: An environmental review of the nearly completed project will look at potential traffic and contamination concerns.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to delay for one year approval of a nearly completed dumping site for septic tank waste in the Sepulveda Basin so that city officials can complete an environmental study of the project.

The environmental review had been requested by environmentalists and neighbors who fear that the septic tank dumping site at the Donald C. Tillman Water Treatment Plant may create excessive truck traffic and contaminate adjacent parkland.

The study, which will take at least a year, may delay the planned April opening of the site for up to six months.

Environmentalists praised the latest action to accommodate the review.

“I think it sort of energizes the environmental community,” said Jill Swift, member of the Sierra Club and Coalition to Save the Sepulveda Basin.

She said she hopes that the review process will allow nearby residents and environmentalists a forum to express concerns about the future of the basin.

The action was also lauded by an aide to City Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district includes part of the basin. “We are happy that the environmental impact report on (the project) is moving along and that a consultant is being hired to complete the EIR,” Chick spokeswoman Karen Constine said.

Under the septic tank program, a new facility at the Tillman plant would be used as a central dumping spot for between 90 and 200 daily truckloads of waste collected from residential septic tanks throughout the San Fernando Valley and nearby cities.

City sanitation officials say the project would allow them more control over what is dumped in city sewers and enable them to charge septic tank customers for the real costs of treating their effluent.

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

Last month, the Board of Public Works, at the behest of Chick and environmentalists, voted to launch an environmental study of the project even though it was nearly completed.