EDITORIAL SWAMP THING CITY HALL'S PLANS TO FLOOD THE SEPULVEDA BASIN ARE AN INSULT TO THE VALLEY.

CAN there be any remaining doubt about what the City Hall insiders truly think of the San Fernando Valley?

The insults keep on coming: an unfair share of city services, outrageous sewer fees, the Sunshine Canyon landfill in Granada Hills, toilet-to-tap water recycling - and now the Department of Sanitation's plans to put a swamp in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area.

And this is not just any old swamp.

When City Hall thinks about dumping on the Valley, it thinks big - 300 acres of recycled wastewater to despoil what's supposed to be recreation area for all to enjoy.

It's easy to relate to the frustration of Van Nuys Homeowners Association President Don Schultz, who complained that ``I don't understand why they can't leave the Sepulveda Basin alone.''

Or better yet, why don't they apply some city resources to expanding and improving recreational uses of the Sepulveda Basin - making the surrounding community a better, not a worse place to live?

The answer is easy to guess. ``They'' - the city's elected and appointed officials alike - care only about the special interests, and certainly not the middle-class, hard-working people of the San Fernando Valley.

Their excuse is that the state Regional Water Control Board requires L.A. to reduce nitrogen levels in the treated wastewater it pumps into the L.A. River by next year. Swamp plants such as bulrushes and cattails eat nitrogen, so turning a huge part of the basin into a massive sludge puddle would do the trick.

There is, however, a cleaner, less offensive alternative. City officials could simply build a treatment plant and filter out the nitrogen mechanically.

That would cost about $100 million - a lot of money, but not much more than the estimated $70 million to $80 million it would cost to give the Valley its very own black lagoon.

For a city government that spent $300 million spiffing up its own downtown digs, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with an extra $20 million to protect the quality of life in the Valley.

But faced with the alternative of improving the Valley or polluting it, city officials invariably make the unconscionable choice. That's what they did when the opted to put a dump in Sunshine Canyon, rather than spend a bit more to ship L.A.'s trash out to the desert.

The spendthrifts in City Hall suddenly turn into cheapskates whenever it comes to the Valley. They view the area as little more than a profitable wasteland - a place to dump the trash and grab the cash.

At least that's L.A.'s history, and it's up to the newly elected city government - the new City Council, council President Alex Padilla (a Valley native) and Mayor James Hahn to chart the course to a more equitable future. They can begin by flushing the Department of Sanitation's plan and standing up for the Sepulveda Basin.

The alternative is to insult the Valley yet again, and pour fuel onto a smoldering secession movement. If they choose that approach, they can start preparing for the day when they'll be running a significantly smaller city of Los Angeles.