The hodge-podge of jurisdictions along the L.A. County coastline is pitting local governments (and their constituents) against each other once again — this time, over a crappy old sewer pipeline running from Venice to the Hyperion treatment plant in Playa Del Rey, direly in need of replacement.

Not only does the project sound gross — who really wants to imagine Venice's excrements surging beneath them 24/7, much as Beverly Hills might imagine a subway running beneath their mansionry? — but, for the next year, its construction would seriously clog the already over-trafficked streets that carry outsiders through the Marina.

We Are Marina Del Rey…

… a group that protests overdevelopment in their neighborhood (though fat ugly apartment complexes have already stomped out most of the remaining marshland), wrote of L.A.'s proposed sewer pipeline:

“There is an alternative to this project and that is to lay the new sewer pipe under the beach. This would cause no disruption to the residents nor traffic. Another option is to lay the sewer pipes along Pacific Avenue but homeowners raised enough concern that the Department of Public Works chose Via Marina as the ideal route. Why? Because we are in the County of Los Angeles, not the City, which has no regard for our community.”

The Pacific Avenue alternative would cost the city 300 extra feet of pipe and $1 million more, but still:

The Superior Court pretty wholeheartedly sides with these few-but-loud Marina residents in its late-July findings, declaring that “the traffic related construction impacts will be greater if the project is constructed on Via Marina than if it is constructed on Pacific Avenue” and that the City of L.A. “ignored the more sever impacts construction would have on Marina.” These include two-and-a-half times more “noise and vibration” than along Pacific.

The judge also found that a bunch of new waterlines being installed over the next year beneath a new slew of Marina Del Rey high-rises (equally dreaded by homeowners), would interfere with the sewer construction. At least they're good for something, right?

Finally, and most embarrassingly for L.A. city planners, the court discovered the city had claimed the Pacific Avenue route would have a greater impact on parking based on three effing parking spaces.

So unless the city appeals, the Marina's safe for now. In the meantime, we're a little concerned about the existing pipe. Via Marina Del Rey Patch:

The city built a 48-inch main sewer in 1958 to carry wastewater from the Westside to the Hyperion facility, but the city realized it needed another line after heavy rains in 1995. The second sewer main would allow the city to handle peak flows and repair and inspect the older pipe.

As if the streets of Venice weren't running with enough homeless RV crud as it is.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

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