Waste Alternatives

Re “Too Big a Stink Over Waste Plant,” Nov. 3.

Why does The Times consistently support conventional methods of dealing with garbage and waste? Every editorial I’ve ever read that addresses controversies relating to a dump or other waste-disposal issue neglects to report or recommend any alternatives.

Recycling not only works, it’s the only way to deal with threats of new dumps. Yes, the public is lazy to embrace it, but frankly that’s just too bad. Either we all take a little time to deal with this problem or more and more communities are going to battle having dumps put in their backyards.

Dumping septic waste in a hole in the ground seems rather low-tech and environmentally hazardous. I’m sure there are many new “green” solutions that the government could embrace. The Times should be in the forefront in recommending brave new solutions.

DAVID V. GREGOLI

Encino

* Your editorial omits a number of critical factors. The most important is that the land leased by the city can be used, according to the lease, only as a water-reclamation facility and nothing else, including not as a proposed cesspool dumping / sewage transfer facility.

Allowing a facility to exist at the present location simply rewards government dishonesty, which surreptitiously built the facility without any public review.

The world’s largest truck toilet should not be placed in the middle of a public park enjoyed by tens of thousands of people each year.

H. MELVIN SWIFT JR.

Tarzana

* It is the opinion of residents living near the proposed septic waste facility in the Sepulveda Basin that the location is not appropriate. Residential neighborhoods and open-air parks should not be subjected to thousands of annual truckloads carrying waste products. Our streets, freeways and canyons can barely cope with the number of cars using them now; adding fleets of large trucks will definitely impact transportation.

More important, this type of facility belongs in industrially zoned areas throughout the city, away from residential neighborhoods. One existing site, adjacent to Van Nuys Airport in an industrial area, should continue to operate. There are other such sites, in industrial-zoned areas, which should also remain open.

The public will continue to speak to this issue. We will continue to say: not near homes and not in parks.

ELLEN BAGELMAN

Van Nuys

Bagelman is president of the Lake Balboa Homeowners Assn.