Some Venice Residents Fume Over RV's Alleged Sewage Dumping

File photo

Some Venice residents were fuming over the weekend after a report surfaced alleging that a couple of RV dwellers dumped sewage from the vehicle's septic tank into a gutter in the 3600 block of South Pacific Avenue along the community's more-tony Marina Peninsula.

According to a series of allegations in a discussion forum at the website YoVenice, a couple allegedly drove up in an RV and, as a man served as a lookout, a woman opened the septic tank and dumped sewage into a gutter that flows directly into the nearby Pacific. Photos and even a video of the remaining brown puddle were subsequently posted.

Police are said to have found the couple along with the woman's young daughter at Third and Rose avenues in the Oakwood district of Venice. The woman was reportedly arrested.

The incident was used to bolster arguments by some who believe homeless RV dwellers have increased crime and decreased the quality of life in Venice.

Proponents of the homeless, however, defend them as equal citizens who, at least, aren't living on sidewalks. They have fought back against what they see as an effort to further gentrify the community and sweep some of its longtime citizens under the carpet.

Los Angeles city Councilman Bill Rosendahl recently kicked off a program that will offer overnight parking lots for some Venice RV dwellers, a proposal that aims to get some of them out of neighborhoods and into a program that aims to eventually find them permanent housing.