Mounting Garbage Causing a Stink : Sanitation: Due to vehicle inspections in wake of fatal accident, trash in some Valley areas has accumulated for two weeks.

The trouble, Sandi Sterling complains, is the contrary of the computer-problem adage: Garbage in, no garbage out.

Thursday was the ninth consecutive day that garbage in Sterling’s upscale Encino neighborhood was not picked up by city trucks. After an accident caused by faulty equipment on a garbage truck killed two children last week, the city has delayed picking up trash in some areas while inspecting its vehicles.

That the inspections are needed is small comfort to those dealing with the threat of fetid air.

Trash, Sterling said, has no place lingering in any residential area, but particularly not in her neighborhood.

“This is the Beverly Hills of the Valley,” she said, speaking before piles of discarded milk containers and cans of empty food sitting in front of her house.

It has been two weeks since her last pickup, because on the previous pickup day the garbage collectors seem to have missed her house altogether.

“I don’t know why they won’t pick it up,” she said in frustration. “If they won’t even take what’s there now, then what am I supposed to do with all this?” she asked, pointing to a rain-soaked pile of boxes and newspapers in her backyard that she did not want added to the mess on her front curb.

An official with the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, Recycling & Waste Reduction Division, which handles garbage collection, guaranteed Thursday that the trash-hauling schedule will return to normal by the weekend, citywide.

“We will certainly be on track by Sunday,” said bureau of sanitation spokeswoman Gyl Elliott, who promised that garbage collectors would work both weekend days, if needed, to clean up the streets.

The delays have occurred, Elliott said, because the city needs to inspect--and if necessary, repair--its 390 garbage trucks. Thursday, for instance, just 209 of the trucks were in use, she said.

The city inspections were prompted by an accident last week in which a mechanical compressing rod on a city garbage truck malfunctioned on a midcity street and ripped through the side of a school bus, killing two 8-year-old boys.

Compared with many other areas, the east San Fernando Valley has been more seriously affected because the same type of truck involved in the fatal midcity accident is used in East Valley pickups. Most West Valley neighborhoods are served by another type of truck, and escaped the delay.

The area of Encino where Sterling lives, however, is serviced by trucks from the East Valley.

In addition to sections of Encino and the East Valley--where there has been a three-day delay--trash pickups have been delayed by a day or two in the Harbor and South-Central areas, city officials said.

And instead of the fragrant smell of potted plants, some of the rain-freshened breezes in Sterling’s neighborhood now carry the indelicate reek of the contents of a neighbor’s garbage. Or of her own.

And while most residents affected by the delays understand the city’s need to ensure safety, grappling with garbage has become an uncomfortable problem.

“What if they don’t come for my trash [for] two weeks?” asked a concerned Marla Lopez after hearing about her neighbor Sterling’s garbage. “What am I going to do?”

Like Sterling, Lopez has called the city to complain. Neither got much in the way of results, they said.

“Especially at this time of the year, you would think that they would have more joy in the heart,” Sterling said.

Responded Elliott: “We’re doing our best.”