Panel Urges Opening of Septic Site

Rejecting the pleas of environmentalists and homeowners, a Los Angeles City Council panel on Monday recommended opening a septic waste dumping site in the Sepulveda Basin.

The Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee voted unanimously to support the recommendations of sanitation officials to make the basin site one of four locations where the city will accept sewage from septic waste haulers.

Environmentalists and Encino residents protested the basin location, saying it would ruin one of the San Fernando Valley’s largest parks and most sensitive wildlife habitats.

“This is not acceptable, and we are going to fight it,” said Peter Ireland, chairman of the Coalition to Save the Sepulveda Basin.

“We think this is an absolute abomination,” added William Jasper, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn.

But sanitation officials argued that the site--which was built in 1993 at a cost of $2 million--is far removed from recreation facilities and is within the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant.

The decision was clearly an awkward one for two committee members, Marvin Braude and Ruth Galanter, who are considered the council’s most devout environmentalists.

Braude called it a “difficult item” but said Los Angeles must quickly open a facility where city officials can monitor the companies that dump waste into the sewer system.

After hearing the arguments of sanitation officials, Braude and Galanter supported opening the basin site. Braude said that if the site becomes a problem in the future, the city can close it down.

Currently, firms that pump out the more than 50,000 private septic tanks in the area pay an annual fee to dispose of the waste into one of several unmonitored service dumps located on streets throughout the city. Often, the trucks hauling the waste spill sewage on the streets.

To address the problem and meet Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, the city built the $2-million basin facility, providing an office where city inspectors can ensure that firms do not dump hazardous waste into the sewer system.

In response to complaints by environmentalists and neighbors about the site, the Public Works Commission last month recommended three other locations to spread out the impact of the project.

They are in Sun Valley on Peoria Street, in downtown Los Angeles on Mesquit Street, and near Los Angeles International Airport.

To pay for the cost of monitoring the facilities, sanitation officials also recommended new fees for the waste haulers that would increase the average cost of pumping a septic tank from $150 to $200. Most tanks are emptied once a year.

Braude and Galanter also supported a recommendation to limit the basin site to 35 truck trips per day and operate only Monday through Friday.

Nonetheless, Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents parts of the basin, argued against using the basin site and instead recommended a location on Hayvenhurst Avenue in an industrial neighborhood near Van Nuys Airport.

“It is much more desirable for the people who live and work in the San Fernando Valley,” she said.

But sanitation officials argued against the Hayvenhurst Avenue site, saying it does not provide drainage in case of a sewage spill.

Braude and Galanter recommended closing Hayvenhurst Avenue at that site so that a drainage system can be built into the street.

The full council is expected to decide the matter in about two weeks.