Sepulveda Basin Is Wrong Site for Dump

* I would like to set the record straight about your story “Residents Protest Site for Septic Tank Sewage” (May 8).

Concerned citizens from the Valley pointed out that this septic dump project at first avoided an environmental impact report. The project was somehow granted a categorical exemption, whereby the city departments of sanitation and engineering did not have to do a report nor adequately inform the public of the construction of this $2.5-million waste facility. Now a full EIR will be done.

Those who started attending city-sponsored meetings were promised that they would be included in the process of selecting alternative sites. The powers-that-be did not do what they had originally promised. Instead, they determined a list of 17 sites on their own. The public was snubbed, not simply “left out” of the process.

An initial study for the EIR says a negative impact could result, most significantly, in human health, recreation, plant and animal life, air quality, noise, flooding and traffic congestion. Who would want to live (or play) next to a facility that could harm human health and wildlife?

The Sepulveda Basin should not even be considered for such a project and should be removed from the list as a possible site. The basin is the Valley’s largest park.

MARLETA WARNEKE-GARNER

Van Nuys