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Nature holds on in polluted Los Angeles waterway

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 28, 2007 at 12:10 pm

From the Los Angeles Times:

Decades of storm drain runoff and illegal dumping have devastated lower Compton Creek, choking its foliage with trash and lacing its knee-deep water with pesticides and industrial waste. But a surprising variety of wildlife clings to a 1/4 -mile-long stretch of creek hemmed in by a casino, a Metro Blue Line station, a freeway and a mall under construction. Turtles chase minnows in the murky, barely moving water. Green herons stand like sentinels on discarded automobile parts covered with muck. Mallards relax in the weeds.

Wildlife can be found south of this spot, closer to where the creek flows into the Los Angeles River. But that part of the channel is wider, flatter and surrounded by heavy industry, and doesn’t have the same concentration of critters residing there.

Leaning against a rail on an Artesia Boulevard bridge, Ken Frederick of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority took in the scene at the forlorn wetland. “Amid all this mess, nature wants to come back, and we plan to help it along,” said Frederick, a planning analyst for the authority.

The area is one of the few ‘dirt-bottomed’ waterways (no concrete) left in the Los Angeles Basin. Any restoration effort depends upon negotiations with the property owners to agree to sell the portion of the creek. There is hope that enough land can be purchased to create a park for Compton residents. The City of Compton has agreed to maintain it if a deal can be reached.

To read the full text of the story from the LA Times, click here.

September 28, 2007 · Filed Under Water & the Environment

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