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Gateway Cities group awarded $10 Million in economic stimulus funds to clean up Los Angeles River

Posted by: Maven on August 6, 2009 at 6:47 am

From the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:

“With a $10 million grant of stimulus funds to prevent trash from flowing into the Los Angeles River, the LA Gateway Region Integrated Regional Water Management Authority (LA Gateway Authority) will be creating at least a hundred jobs in the gateway region over the next two years. LA Gateway Authority will be using these funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) in cities whose storm drains flow into the river: Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Compton, Cudahy, Downey, Huntington Park, Long Beach, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Signal Hill, South Gate and Vernon.

In addition to creating jobs through this grant, the LA Gateway Authority will help to achieve significant improvement in the water quality of the Los Angeles River. Project construction is expected to commence this fall, and be complete by the summer of 2011.

“This is fantastic news for our Gateway Region,” said Kevin Wattier, chair of the Gateway IRWM Authority. “Desi Alvarez from the City of Downey worked tirelessly to put this project together, and he deserves all the credit.” The $10 million grant will defray 100% of the cost of designing and installing the trash-capturing devices. The individual cities will be responsible for ongoing maintenance of the inserts once construction is complete.

“Currently, more than 800,000 pounds of waste accumulate in storm drains that wash out to flood control channels and eventually into the river,” said Mr. Alvarez. “This $10 million dollars will be of significant help in cleaning up the river,” he said.

The LA Gateway Authority is a joint powers authority of the cities of Cerritos, Downey, Lakewood, Long Beach, Norwalk, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Signal Hill, South Gate, Vernon and Whittier, the Southeast Water Coalition, and the Central Basin Municipal Water District.

The Authority is currently pursuing a similar project for the San Gabriel River watershed.”

August 6, 2009 · Filed Under Southern California

Comments

One Response to “Gateway Cities group awarded $10 Million in economic stimulus funds to clean up Los Angeles River”

  1. Sam Kouri on May 24th, 2010 3:32 pm

    Hello
    The City of montebello will benefit from the catch basin insert installation. However, the ongoing maintenance of the catch basin inserts will be a burden on the city’s general fund. Are there funding sources available for Cities to apply for funds for ongoing maintainenance of the catch basins?
    Thanks for your time
    Sam

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