Central Los Angeles : Residents Rally Against Sewer Line

The potential hazards of a major sewer line planned underneath Southwest Los Angeles have sparked neighborhood concern about the effect that noise, air pollution and gas odors will have on residences and schools.

Some residents fear their communities will become “the stinkpot capital of the world” during the 2 1/2 years of construction, said one opponent, Minnie Sweet-Goings, who lives in the community of Baldwin Village near Baldwin Hills.

However, with little support from elected officials, the residents seem unlikely to win their fight to change the route of the project.

Los Angeles city officials plan an 11-mile sewer line from Culver City through south Los Angeles, the first phase of a major “interceptor” line.

It is to be built alongside a crumbling, 80-year-old line that sends raw sewage from throughout Los Angeles to a treatment plant in Culver City. From there, the sewage is sent to the oceanside Hyperion Treatment Plant in El Segundo.

The $200-million project will be built along an east-west route that roughly follows Coliseum Street.

The City Council’s Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee approved the project last month and sent it to the full council despite protests from 50 Southwest Los Angeles residents. The council will hear the issue in mid-April.

Some residents, such as Sweet-Goings, want to make sure that strict rules are set in place during construction to guarantee that the 16-hour-a-day work will cause as little disruption as possible. They also want assurances of financial compensation if there are problems.

More extreme critics, such as Milton Bassett, a resident of the Village Green neighborhood, want the sewer routed out of the neighborhood to an industrial location.

“There are so many things that are detrimental about this project,” Bassett said.

Large portions of streets and sidewalks have crumbled over the last couple of years when parts of the old sewer line caved in. Last winter, several sections overflowed, causing raw sewage to spill into the streets.

While the new line will be technologically advanced, residents worry that construction will still inconvenience their lives and perhaps even put them in danger.

They are especially worried about the effects of tunneling, such as vibrations that could disrupt children’s ability to study in school, hazardous substances that might be dug up from the ground, and the possibility of fiascoes reminiscent of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s subway sinkhole problems.

Opponents note that when the original line was constructed, the city did not have to worry about disrupting residents because south Los Angeles was still largely undeveloped. Today it is densely populated.

Residents are sensitive to the fact that the project will run through historically minority communities such as the Crenshaw district and Baldwin Hills, carrying sewage from all of metropolitan Los Angeles as well as Glendale and Burbank.

For years, groups of minority activists throughout the United States have campaigned for “environmental justice”--a movement contending that a disproportionate amount of public works projects are placed in poor and minority areas.

“It’s time to ‘spread the wealth,’ ” said Connie Brown, a community activist, after one of several public hearings about the new sewer line.

City engineers contend the project’s worst impact would be the congestion caused by the trucks and construction sites. The other effects, such as vibrations and noise from tunneling, would be minimal if at all noticeable, they said.

In addition, any buildup of methane gas produced by sewage would immediately be detected by sensors placed along the new lines, officials said, and the properties above the tunneling sites will be photographed and videotaped regularly.