Sewage Plant Tries to Ease Fury Over Tall-Tank Plan

Hyperion Treatment Plant officials, reacting to angry El Segundo residents, emphasized last week that no final decision has been reached on whether to build a row of giant processing tanks that would block homeowners’ views.

“We are not even close to saying this is what we are going to do,” Walt Naydo, division engineer for Hyperion, said in response to the proposal to erect a number of 105-foot-high processing tanks as part of the ongoing work to increase the plant’s capacity.

Naydo added that Hyperion, which is operated by the city of Los Angeles, would embark on a worldwide search to determine if there are other types of tanks that could be used.

Naydo’s remarks came in reaction to the uproar that followed a balloon demonstration conducted by Hyperion officials Sept. 23. Fifty large weather balloons were floated about 100 feet into the air to demonstrate to homeowners who live on the bluffs above the plant how their views might be affected.

A number of residents immediately--and vociferously--complained to El Segundo and Hyperion officials that the tanks would block their beach and ocean views, and drive down property values. They also contended that the tanks would block ocean breezes that dissipate the bad odors that sometimes emanate from the plant.

“I can live with the plant the way it is now,” said Elisa Bonilla, who moved to a home on Dune Street above the plant two years ago with her husband and three children. “ . . . Now all of a sudden we have a 100-foot wall that is going to be built in front of us. That is not fair.”

Said El Segundo City Councilman Scot Dannen: “This is not just a strike against El Segundo. This is a strike against the entire Santa Monica Bay” because the tanks would be visible all along the beach and from the water.

Dannen spent much of last week organizing a community forum on the issue. About 200 residents attended a Thursday night meeting at Recreation Park, demanding that plans for the tanks be dropped.

Concern for Blocked Views

Afterward, Dannen said he is convinced that Hyperion officials are sincere about trying to find alternatives to the tanks. However, he said he is unwilling to live with any tank that would block any homeowner’s view.

“If they can make it so we don’t see them at all, that is fine,” Dannen said. “But we will not tolerate any interference with our views.”

Dannen said he and residents will launch an aggressive, grass-roots campaign in an effort to garner political support. The final decision, which could come within three months, rests with Los Angeles City Engineer Robert Horii and the city’s director of the Bureau of Sanitation, Delwin Biagi.

Hyperion officials said the proposed tanks, called digesters, would be egg-shaped and about 85 feet in diameter. If approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, a dozen tanks would be erected, probably by 1993, and nine others could be built in the future. Construction of the first batch would probably begin in mid-1991.

More Efficient System

Naydo said the proposed 105-foot-high tanks are more efficient and easier to maintain than the 18 digesters now in operation at the plant. In addition, the proposed tanks would take up less space than the current type, he said, thereby allowing the plant to build more digesters to treat more sewage. The digesters currently in use are 25 feet high and 110 feet wide.

In an area equivalent in size to where four digesters now stand, nine of the tall digesters could be built and the volume of sewage treated could be doubled, Naydo said. Each of the proposed tanks would hold about 2.5 million gallons of solid sewage.

Naydo said the height of the proposed tanks, which are commonly used in Europe, could easily be reduced by five feet, and perhaps more, simply by making the diameter of the tanks wider.

Also, Naydo said, the tanks could be lowered all the way into the ground, although such a move would be “very, very expensive.” Plans call for the tanks to be lowered 30 feet into the ground, but not farther because they would encounter ground water.

Lower Profile Costs More

“You can go as deep as necessary in order to completely eliminate the visual impact,” Naydo said, adding that the estimated $70-million price tag for building 18 tall digesters would probably double if they were buried.

Construction of the tanks is unrelated to the federal court order requiring Hyperion to become a full secondary treatment plant by 1998, said Naydo.

Naydo said the balloon test was conducted at the suggestion of El Segundo Mayor Carl Jacobson. Before the test, few residents bothered to show up at workshops or a public hearing held by Hyperion to discuss the plan for the proposed tanks.

“Basically . . . we needed information from the residents to determine how seriously the impact may be and we needed something to work from,” Naydo said. “From our perspective, this is only the beginning of the decision-making process.”