SUN VALLEY : Opponents of Waste Center Plan to Meet

Upset that a septic treatment center has been proposed for a site on San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, a group of local homeowners will hold a public meeting today to discuss its opposition.

“Eighty percent of the city’s waste comes here,” said Tony Alcala, a Sun Valley resident and leader of the East Valley Parent Action Committee. “Why can’t Sherman Oaks and Encino take some of it? I say it’s racist.”

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who also is opposed to the Sun Valley site, will attend the meeting, to be held from noon to 3 p.m. at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School.

“We have 13 landfills in the district already; four of them are still open,” said Alarcon spokesman Arturo Gonzalez. “It’s our opinion that we don’t need another.”

Alcala said homeowners became incensed when the site at 9701 San Fernando Road was suggested as an alternative to the already-built septic waste collection facility at Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in the Sepulveda Basin.

The $2.3-million Tillman facility was to have been the central dumping spot for septic tank waste from the San Fernando Valley and nearby cities, including Malibu and Calabasas.

But in October, 1993, residents who live near Tillman and Councilwoman Laura Chick requested that the city study alternative sites, arguing that trucking waste through the basin to Tillman could contaminate the surrounding recreation area.

The site in Sun Valley, a Chatsworth site and a site in Downtown Los Angeles were proposed as alternatives. J. P. Ellman, president of the city’s Board of Public Works, said on Friday that engineers are seeking “one more alternative site” to the three already under consideration.

She declined to say where it might be, and said no date has been set to announce a decision.

If none of the alternative sites is picked, the waste treatment center at the Tillman facility would be used, officials said.