Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area

A routine jog for three Los Angeles police officers turned into a 1 1/4-mile-long foot, bicycle and golf cart chase that ended--thanks to a little help from actor Scott Baio--with the capture of an attempted rape suspect, police said Saturday. Metropolitan Division officers Alan Sorkness, Charles Heim and Gary Morgan were out for a training run in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area about 4:30 p.m.

The stats Distance: 1.1 miles (for the loop around the lake) Duration: 40 minutes Difficulty: 1 (on a scale of 1 to 5) Details: No dogs allowed. Wheelchair accessible. Bus: Routes 164, 236 and Woodley Station on Metro Orange Line.

More than 100 people, some wearing paper surgical masks, gathered at the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area on Saturday to punctuate their opposition to a nearly completed central dumping site for septic tank sewage that has been put on hold pending environmental studies. The Los Angeles City Council voted in November to delay for one year approval of the facility, situated within an existing water-treatment plant.

Think of it as nirvana with a concrete face, that otherworldly edifice northwest of where the 405 and 101 freeways intersect: the Sepulveda Dam. Maybe you recognize it from the movies "The Italian Job" and "Escape From New York," or from music videos and car commercials. Rising 57 feet above the streambed and perched on an embankment that stretches over two miles, it was built in 1941 on the Los Angeles River.

In the spirit of Earth Day, about 90 volunteers will pitch in Saturday morning to clear plastic bags, newspaper, soda cans and other debris that the winter rains brought to the wildlife reserve of the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area. After cleaning the area--home to such birds as herons, sandpipers, hummingbirds, egrets and tricolored blackbirds--members of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society and the California Native Plant Society will lead nature walks through the reserve.

A 35-member Los Angeles police task force took into custody two suspects matching the description of a man believed to have raped three women in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, but authorities said Sunday that they can't be sure either is the attacker. One man was picked up late Saturday night about a half-mile from where one of the attacks occurred, police said. But he was released after showing police enough identification to prove he is not a transient.

Not far from the fumes and madding crowds of Ventura Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway lies an oasis. More than just a large green rectangle on a map, the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area is the San Fernando Valley's answer to Central Park. Where else but in this verdant basin can recreation- seekers indulge in anything from cricket to softball to bird- watching? Water lovers can fish and boat on 26- acre Balboa Lake, which is stocked with catfish and crappies.

A popular jogging path at the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area that was closed and marked hazardous after the El Nino-driven storms may be repaired soon, state officials said Tuesday. Federal Emergency Management Agency authorities are expected to reconsider paying as much as $200,000 to clear the path, which was declared a disaster site after the rains, said Graham Cox, a disaster relief official with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Every morning as commuters squint through sleepy eyes from behind sunglasses and visors and shift into high gear to start their day, another kind of awakening takes place not more than a stone's throw from two of Southern California's most traveled freeways. With the dawn's early light comes the sound of a frog's throaty call. Ducks chatter as they make their way from the shoreline onto the lake as the morning mist slowly rises above them.

Fifteen alternatives to a controversial septic waste-receiving facility in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area will be introduced at a city-sponsored workshop Saturday. The 15 sites have been identified by the Los Angeles Department of Public Works as alternatives to the nearly completed facility at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant. The May 7 workshop and open house at the Tillman plant, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., are open to the public.

Rosa Vasquez and her two children reached a fork in the corn maze park and paused. "This is hard," said Vasquez, 33, of Reseda, who had brought a bottle of water. "We should have brought something to eat. We're going to leave dying of hunger and from the heat." Luckily, like all participants at the Van Nuys park, the family carried a tall red flag to make it easier for park staff to find them.

Los Angeles officials will delay tests for year 2000 computer readiness at the Hyperion Treatment Plant until they are certain that there will be no sewage spills that could endanger Santa Monica Bay. In an emergency briefing of the city Public Works Board on Friday, Sanitation Bureau Manager Drew Sones said tests of Hyperion's backup electrical system--scheduled for next month--will be delayed while testing procedures are reexamined.

Raising concerns about local governments' ability to handle the year 2000 computer problem, a test of the emergency system at a Los Angeles sanitation plant went awry Wednesday night, spilling about 4 million gallons of untreated sewage into part of the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area before officials could stop it.

Raising concerns about the city's ability to handle the year 2000 computer problem, a test of the emergency system at a sanitation plant went awry Wednesday night, spilling about 4 million gallons of untreated sewage into part of the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area before officials could stop it.

A popular jogging path at the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area that was closed and marked hazardous after the El Nino-driven storms may be repaired soon, state officials said Tuesday. Federal Emergency Management Agency authorities are expected to reconsider paying as much as $200,000 to clear the path, which was declared a disaster site after the rains, said Graham Cox, a disaster relief official with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Gasping for air, they hop the city fences, or crawl through holes cut in the wire, ignoring signs that warn them of the danger ahead. Inside, some huff their way along the slippery dirt and concrete banks of the Los Angeles River with only their sneaker treads keeping them from plunging into the water. Others have sunk through the thin top crust of mud beds, sometimes up to their waists. They have been trapped, as if in quicksand, in their quest to be fit.

Gasping for air, they hop the city fences or crawl through wire-cut entrances, ignoring signs that warn them of the danger ahead. Inside, some huff their way along the slippery dirt and concrete banks of the Los Angeles River with only their sneaker treads keeping them from plunging into the water. Others have sunk through the thin top crust of mud beds, sometimes up to their waists. They have been trapped, as if in quicksand, in their quest to be fit.

In response to angry demonstrations organized by neighbors and environmentalists in recent weeks, the vice president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works has intervened and scheduled a workshop on a proposed septic waste dump in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area. The public is invited to the meeting, which will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. today at the Balboa Sports Center, 17015 Burbank Blvd., Encino. In a May 20 letter to area residents who have attended past meetings on the dump, J.P.

Gasping for air, they hop the city fences or crawl through wire-cut entrances, ignoring signs that warn them of the danger ahead. Inside, some huff their way along the slippery dirt and concrete banks of the Los Angeles River with only their sneaker treads keeping them from plunging into the water. Others have sunk through the thin top crust of mud beds, sometimes up to their waists. They have been trapped, as if in quicksand, in their quest to be fit.

It is a hopeful day at the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, calm and clear enough to suggest summer is on the way. So Joseph Valle and his 6-year-old cousin Reno show up around noon, all smiles. With much clanking and clattering, they pull Reno's bicycle from the back of their truck. Valle laces on a pair of skates. "Family time and exercise," the Van Nuys resident said. "Knock off two birds with one stone."