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ENCINO - City officials sweetened a controversial plan to create a Sepulveda Basin wastewater marsh to cut pollution of the Los Angeles River by proposing Wednesday to add boardwalks, biking trails, a nature center and a soccer field.
The plan got the nod from bird watchers and river guardians, but a thumbs-down from homeowners and some environmental groups.
The draft of the proposed Sepulveda Wetlands Park released by the Department of Public Works calls for 60 acres of wetland cattails and bulrushes created from treated wastewater.
The $15.6 million park, designed to attract birds and other wildlife, would be enhanced by boardwalks, biking trails, a nature center and a soccer field south of Burbank Boulevard, between Woodley Avenue and the Ventura Freeway.
Critics call the project a cynical attempt by the city to cut sewage treatment costs and promote development by increasing sewage treatment capacity through the elimination of precious open space and stinking up nearby neighborhoods.
"It is not a wetlands project," said Dr. Rosemarie White, founder of the Canada Goose Project and a member of a Sepulveda Basin wildlife committee. "It is a sanitation filtration project designed in the mode of a pseudo-wetlands."
But officials insist the wetland would not only cut algae-...