Hyperion Officials Hope to Rid Area of Foul Smell Today

Foul odors swept through parts of El Segundo Thursday because of continuing problems at the Hyperion sewage treatment plant in Playa del Rey, where last month a major sewer line collapse sent 10,000 gallons of raw sewage into Santa Monica Bay.

“It smells like raw sewage,” Vice Mayor Scot D. Dannen complained. “We have a mess down here.”

City Hall phones were ringing all day, Dannen said, as angry citizens demanded to know what was causing the odor and when it would be eliminated.

Plant director John Crosse said that the smell, which he hoped to have eliminated by late today, was directly related to the Nov. 21 rupture and work this week on two new sewer lines at the plant.

At the time of the sewer line collapse, Crosse said, about 8 million gallons of overflow sewage was diverted to one of the new lines. The sewage was later treated inside the plant, he said, but about 200 cubic yards of sand and grit were left inside the new pipe.

This week contractors started flushing the sand and grit out of the pipe and into the plant’s treatment system. There was so much sand, Crosse said, that it overwhelmed the plant’s grit-separating equipment, the first step in the sewage treatment process.

Now, workers must be lowered into the two grit-separating tanks to shovel out the heaps of sand.

“We’re working 24 hours a day,” Crosse said.

Outside the plant, the sand must be hosed down to separate any traces of sewage, Crosse said. The sand is then vacuumed into trucks and hauled to a landfill.

The odor, spread by high winds late Wednesday and Thursday, occurs when the sand and grit are hit by air and water, Crosse said.

Wednesday night, after receiving seven complaints from area residents, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a notice of violation against the plant for causing a public nuisance. If AQMD prosecutors obtain a conviction against the plant, a fine of up to $25,000 could be imposed, officials said.

Construction on the two new lines at the plant is a joint venture between J. F. Shea Co. in Walnut and Traylor Brothers Inc. of Evansville, Ind., according to Crosse. They are providing laborers to help shovel the sand out of the tanks, he said, adding that he did not know what action the city of Los Angeles might take against the contractors. Los Angeles owns the Hyperion plant.