Sewage Treatment Plant Becomes a Star Attraction for Movies

What the heck is going on at the Sepulveda Basin?

One day, a lowlife with a gun is shooting at a rap artist in the tunnels beneath a sewage treatment plant, and a few days later, ninja assassins are rappelling down a wall and crashing cars on an adjacent access road.

Not too long ago, a maniacal police chief at the plant’s administration building dispatched a cyborg killer to execute a kick-boxing Secret Service agent.

Then there was the problem with the exploding coconuts during the “Bio-Dome” experiment.

What is happening is good old-fashioned movie magic. But it is taking place in a most unlikely location: The Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, a Van Nuys facility that treats about 80 million gallons of sewage a day.

In a testament to Hollywood’s resourcefulness, the plant and the adjacent Japanese Gardens have become one of the hottest film sites in the city, particularly for low-budget sci-fi movies, monster flicks and action films.

In the last two years, the location has been used 99 times for filming and still photography shoots, according to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which issues filming permits in the city of Los Angeles.

The plant and the gardens--which were built to demonstrate the positive uses of reclaimed water--are booked on an average of nearly once a week, a pace that Donna Washington of the development corporation called “pretty busy, especially for a city location.”

Only a few other city-owned sites, such as Griffith Park and City Hall, are more popular.

Among the reasons for the garden’s popularity: The location is cheap and versatile.

For only $300 a day, film crews have access to the 6.5 acres of serene, picturesque gardens, miles of spooky underground tunnels and the plant’s futuristic administration building.

“The price is right,” said Bill Monroe, a location manager for Royal Oaks Entertainment, which has filmed at the Japanese Gardens several times, including a karate-action movie called “Memorial Day.”

Similar locations elsewhere can cost up to $3,000 a day, but Mayor Richard Riordan has demanded that the city keep filming fees low at all its facilities to keep the entertainment industry thriving in Los Angeles.

Workers at the gardens also try to accommodate the film industry, but they make sure that the filming doesn’t cause too much wear and tear on the delicate vegetation or disrupt the three or four daily garden tours. For that reason, a landscape architect stands by to monitor all the filming.

“We give them little reminders here and there to keep them from trampling things,” said Patrick Rigney, assistant landscape architect.