Army engineers clean up graffiti along L.A. River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 28, 2009 at 5:58 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“For as long as many can remember, the section of the Los Angeles River that runs east of downtown has been an open-air gallery for taggers. No more.
Members of the self-described “Metro Transit Assassins” used the river’s sloping banks for massive tags of their acronym that stretched for blocks and could be seen from passing aircraft. “Buket,” who gained notoriety for tagging the Hollywood Freeway overpass, put his black-bordered, mint-green moniker here at its biggest and boldest.
But in recent months, these tags and tens of thousands of others have begun to vanish beneath coats of grayish-white paint. And with the year drawing to a close, the river is almost as blank a canvas as when its concrete channel was built early in the last century.
The transformation has been so conspicuous that commuters heading south to Orange County have asked about the change, authorities say. Some wonder what happened to the color while others are pleased to see what they consider blight finally gone. … “
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Corporation formed to help transform LA River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 2, 2009 at 6:04 amFrom the Silicon Valley Mercury News:
“A non-profit corporation was established Tuesday to help advance a decades-long plan to transform 32 miles of the concrete-filled Los Angeles River into a strip of parks, walkways, bike trails and housing.
The Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation is tasked with buying, selling and developing property along a portion of the river stretching from the west San Fernando Valley to East Los Angeles.
City Councilman Ed Reyes said the newly formed body would be able to carry on its mission, despite changes in the makeup of government that have stymied progress in the past.
“This could be a pillar that would withstand that political turbulence,” he said. … “
Read more from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here.
Project aims to keep trash out of LA river
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 16, 2009 at 6:18 am
From the Long Beach Press Telegram:
“Shopping carts, tires or furniture floating down the Los Angeles River and into the San Pedro Bay could be a thing of the past.
A major environmental project to help 16 cities capture tons of their trash before it enters the Los Angeles River moved forward when a regional authority awarded a $5 million contract funded with federal stimulus monies Thursday.
The contract will fund the installation of approximately 12,000 trash-collection devices known as catch basin inserts into storm drains, under the contract awarded by the LA Gateway Region Integrated Regional Water Management Authority (LA Gateway Authority).
One insert will be installed inside each publicly held storm drain that leads to the Los Angeles River in all of the 16 Gateway Cities. …”
Read more from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.
Photograph of trash in the water by flickr photographer Stacina.
L. A. Creek Freak: The Fifth Ecology – a Swedish take on Los Angeles and its river
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 13, 2009 at 8:09 am
From the L.A. Creek Freak:
“There’s a fun Los Angeles River exploration show/project that’s opening this weekend. It’s called The Fifth Ecology: Los Angeles Beyond Desire. It’s the creation of a team of Swedish designers, architects, engineers and dreamers, collaborating through a year-long workshop based at Stockholm’s Royal University College of Fine Arts.
The team came and toured L.A. in February, brought some river folks to Stockholm earlier this year, and then dreamed up Los Angeles a river that would be vital and sustainable and wonderful. Their work is available as a handsome catalog online, and an exhibit at gallery G727 at in downtown L.A. (sometimes afectionately known as “James Rojas’ gallery.”) G727 is located at 727 South Spring Street, LA 90014. The exhibit will be up from November 15th through December 12, 2009. The opening reception is this Sunday, November 15th, from 5–9pm. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11am–7pm. At tonight’s downtown artwalk folks can see a pre-opening preview of the show. …”
Read more about this interesting exhibit from the L.A. Creek Freak by clicking here.
L.A. Council approves purchase of dairy site for future park along Los Angeles River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 26, 2009 at 6:17 amFrom the Los Angeles Times’ LA Now blog:
“The Los Angeles City Council today approved the purchase of a 6.3-acre dairy site along the L.A. River that officials hope to transform into a public park and water treatment center.
Officials have eyed the Albion Dairy site for several years as a prime location to clean storm water from the surrounding 254 acres before it enters the L.A. River through two drains that run parallel to the Spring Street and Main Street bridges. The parcel is part of an area straddling the river east of downtown that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hopes to transform into an incubator for clean technology companies.
The city is purchasing the dairy land with $17.6 million from Proposition O, the $500-million bond measure approved by voters in 2004 to clean up the city’s beaches, waterways and lakes.
There are no design plans yet for the park in the Lincoln Heights area, which is close to the Downey Recreation Center. City officials must still secure money to build the water treatment center and create the park — and that work will not begin for at least two years, when the dairy operator’s lease expires. Officials will raze the buildings and clear the site at that time. …”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Many rivers to cross … or, many ‘engineered earth bottom flood control channels’, if you’re in Los Angeles…
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 5, 2009 at 7:01 amFrom Mark Gold at the Spouting Off blog:
“Does Los Angeles County really have rivers? Based on Thursday’s debacle of a Regional Water Board hearing, I’m not sure its staff believe that there is an L.A. River, Compton Creek, Santa Clara River, or San Gabriel River. Flood control channels, yes. Living, breathing rivers, no.
The item before the Board was Los Angeles County’s Section 401 certification application on the “Maintenance Clearing of Engineered Earth Bottom Flood Control Channels” for about 100 water body segments. (The application falls under a Clean Water Act section regarding dredging and filling of waters of the United States).
Unfortunately, the hearing on the item was cancelled due to a major faux pas by Board staff. They inadvertently provided a pocket approval of the county’s application by not rendering a decision within one year of its submission. The county’s application was submitted and deemed complete for review by Board staff last August.
The end result? The county’s flawed five-year 401 certification is bound for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval with no changes and there’s nothing we can do about it. …”
Read more from the Spouting Off blog by clicking here.
Volunteers pick up trash along the L.A. River; About 150 gather plastic bags and other debris in the Van Nuys area
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 24, 2009 at 6:28 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“A group of about 150 volunteers gathered Saturday to clear a portion of the Los Angeles River in Van Nuys. Among their finds: lots of plastic grocery bags, hundreds of cigarette butts, a baseball and, at least for some, a newfound appreciation for the waterway. “You should go over there. It’s really pretty,” said Kiya Villareal, a 16-year-old from Sherman Oaks who was there with her family. “They have bamboo and water.”
The event was organized by the Friends of the Los Angeles River and underwritten by a $50,000 donation from Aquarius Spring, a bottled water branch of the Coca-Cola Co.; it supplements the Friends of the Los Angeles River’s annual clean-up.
Jon Mukri, general manager of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, said his department has never had the funding for such work.
“You’re bringing life to a river that was dead when I was a kid,” he told the volunteers as they donned gloves, picked up large blue trash bags and headed into the river. …”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
L.A. River revitalization slowly flows forward: Community meeting in Cypress Park provides updates and design workshops as part of ongoing efforts to restore the concrete-lined river into a vibrant city centerpiece
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 31, 2009 at 6:32 am
From EGP News:
“Following several devastating floods along the Los Angeles River during the 1930’s that claimed 85 lives, the federal government lined the river with concrete for protection against future incidents. In addition to the safety features, the concrete massacre provided thousands of jobs for city residents. Today, city officials hope to create thousands of new jobs to rip the concrete out and restore the river back to its natural state.
That is part of what Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes (CD-1) envisions for the future of the river.
Today the river bears little resemblance to the one that attracted the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes back in 800 B.C.
As part of an ongoing effort to transform the river into a new environmental civic center, city officials invited community members for a series of meetings at the Los Angeles River Center and Garden in Cypress Park. The Los Angeles River Project Update and Design Workshop held on Tuesday allowed attendees to brainstorm on potential federal projects for the river. … “
More from EGP News by clicking here.
Conan and Andy canoe the Los Angeles River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2009 at 5:57 amFrom The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien:
Supervisors OK Compton Creek plan
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 5:54 amFrom the Long Beach Press Telegram:
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to support the development of a master plan for revitalizing Compton Creek. The plan, to be designed with the coordination of a number of agencies, potentially including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is intended to incorporate flood protection, water quality and conservation improvements and recreational opportunities.
Compton Creek, which is about 8.5 miles long and drains a 42-square-mile area, is a significant watershed in Los Angeles County, but it has been degraded by polluted runoff and dumping. Like the Los Angeles River, parts of it have been lined with concrete.
The creek forms around 108th and Main streets in Watts and drains into the Los Angeles River just south of Del Amo Boulevard in Long Beach.
Read more from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.
KCET Departures: The Los Angeles River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 8, 2009 at 6:28 amFrom KCET Departures:
Hundreds of years ago, the Gabriellos – L. A.’s first residents – lived and worked on the banks of the Paime Pahite. That river’s basin was green and lush, according to Anthony Morales, Chief Red Bloog of the Tangva Indians, dotted with strands of willow and oak that stretched all the way to the Pacific.
With the arrival of the Spaniards and the western rancheros, the Paime Pahite and its tributaries began to change. The demands of an ever growing population, and development of new irrigation technologies, changed both the river’s landscape and its meaning in the lives of Angelenos. (It also changed its name, the Paime Pahite becoming the Los Angeles River.) By the 1930’s, when a series of heavy floods led the Army Corps of Engineers to canalize the waterway into little more than a concrete flood control channel, the city had essentially turnd its back on the ancient river running through it.
But things have changed. As a result of 25 years of stubborn labor, steady reclamation and dedication, an army of activists, environmentalists, and residents are poised to redisvocer the Paime Pahite. The City now has a master plan to revitalize the river and in the process run a cool, green ribbon of public space up L. A.’s spine.
Journey with us down the 52-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River and meet those who are helping it flow back to our public life and popular imagination.
Check out this interesting and informative interactive webpage on the Los Angeles River by KCET Departures – click here.
Restore the L.A. River? It’s a pipe dream … At its best, the waterway is an above-ground sewer filled with nastiness and lined by graffiti-scarred concrete and smoke-belching industrial buildings.
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 3, 2009 at 6:39 amFrom the Los Angeles Times, this commentary:
I just got back from riding down the bike path along the Los Angeles River, and I’d like to write some Whitmanesque stanzas about the atomic oneness of nature, but the diesel fumes have aggravated my asthma and my ears are still ringing from the trucks blaring past on the Golden State Freeway.
When John Muir wrote about the effects of time spent in the wilderness — “the galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware” — he wasn’t thinking about the L.A. River. It is, and will remain, an above-ground sewer, rendering the efforts of those who want to remake it into a recreational paradise seem more than a little quixotic.
The five-mile bike path runs from the northern part of Griffith Park to Fletcher Drive near Silver Lake. It passes along the Glendale Narrows section of the river, which, unlike most of the waterway’s length, has no concrete bottom because groundwater rises to the surface here and would crack through a man-made barrier. The result is something that almost resembles a real river, with trees, shrubs and natural grasses. Picture a mountain stream, then line its banks with graffiti-scarred concrete, smoke-belching industrial buildings and the snarling, lung-burning, 10-lane tornado that is the I-5, and you have the Glendale Narrows.
Read more of this commentary by clicking here.
There are certain online gems that I like to pull out when stories about certain topics pop up … and any time there’s a Los Angeles River story, I just HAVE to post the link to my favorite Los Angeles River website of them all: the Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures (FOVICKS) The creator of this impressive piece of work writes: “As an amateur ‘Industrial Archaeologist’, I love the LA River as a bizarre curiosity. Many groups have formed in attempt to beautify or revert the “river” to a previous state. But I like it the way it is; a weird, massive flood control channel.” Yes, the writer of the above commentary may not like the river, but some people do….
For a blog that follows the revitalization plans for the L.A. River, plus a lot more, check out L. A. Creek Freak.
Volunteers clean up L.A. River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 10, 2009 at 6:33 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
A trove of trash was plucked from the Los Angeles River on Saturday morning during the 20th annual river cleanup.
An estimated 3,000 volunteers spread out over 14 sites from the San Fernando Valley down to Long Beach. Wearing disposable gloves and armed with trash sacks, the garbage-collectors-for-a-day did their part to purge the river of all manner of trash that ends up in its 52-mile stretch. “We’ve had hot tubs and phone booths,” said Shelly Backlar, executive director of Friends of the Los Angeles River, which organizes the cleanup. “It’s almost like, ‘What am I going to find?’ ”
At the Sepulveda Basin site, volunteers used shovels to dig up old shopping carts as a bluegrass band serenaded them. (At most of the sites, people didn’t actually wade into the water.)
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Los Angeles River dredging gets $1.5 million from federal stimulus
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 2, 2009 at 7:09 amFrom the Long Beach Press Telegram:
Dredging at the mouth of the Los Angeles River is included in the latest stimulus package announced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District.
Included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding is $1,580,000 for the Los Angeles River Estuary at the mouth of the Los Angeles River in Long Beach.
The Corps will dredge material that flowed down the Los Angeles River and has been deposited in the Federal Navigation Channel. The project, which began in 2007 as a result of the heavy shoaling in 2005 but was suspended due to a lack of funding, will allow for safe navigation, officials said.
“Continuing the work on this project is critical to the safe navigation of vessels within the estuary and those that support the City of Avalon on Catalina Island,” said Col. Thomas H. Magness IV, commander of the Los Angeles District.
Read more from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.
Glendale riverwalk waits for unfrozen funds
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:14 amFrom the Glendale News Press:
Plans to redevelop Glendale’s frontage along the Los Angeles River, which were delayed by the state budget crisis and easement issues, are back on the table as parks officials await word on a frozen $1.1-million state grant for the project.
The California Resources Agency had awarded the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk Project a $1.1-million grant in August, but in the time it took to shore up the rest of the project’s funding sources and finalize plans, the state’s fiscal crisis took hold, freezing up a major portion of the project’s $1.61-million budget.
On a parallel track, the city was forced into negotiations with DreamWorks Animation LLC over gaining access to a 15-foot strip of land along the studio’s southernmost edge along the river.
That roadblock is in the process of dissolving after DreamWorks reached a tentative agreement last week to give up the easement in return for moving a trail exit closer to Flower Street to make room for extra operations equipment, said George Chapjian, director of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.
Read more from the Glendale News Press by clicking here.
Los Angeles River Improvement Overlay (RIO) approved by Planning Commission
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 18, 2009 at 6:19 amFrom L.A. Creek Freak:
The River Improvement Overlay, or “RIO,” zoning ordinance was approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission last week on Thursday February 12th 2009. Keen-eyed non-memory-impaired Creek Freak readers are already familiar with the RIO from our earlier in-depth coverage. The RIO is one small part of the larger 20+ year Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan.
The RIO creates a new set of city planning rules (technically a supplemental use district) that will apply to an irregularly-shaped corridor approximately 1/2 mile on either side of the Los Angeles River, within the City of Los Angeles (actual boundary map here.) The RIO is a kind of river-friendly checklist – a bit like the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system for certifying green buildings. It makes things a bit greener, more sustainable, and more oriented toward bicycle and pedestrian transportation. It also encourages affordable housing, river-orientation of activities, and more.
Developers looking to mitigate impacts of their development will be able to apply those efforts to river improvement projects, if the plan receives final approval. The plan will now move to committees, before it proceeds to the full city council for approval. Read more from the L.A. Creek Freak by clicking here.
Non-navigable River Blues: Muddied water-protection standards leave Western streams without oversight
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 3, 2009 at 6:23 am
From the High Country News:
Heather Wylie found herself out of a job in December. And it really had nothing to do with the economic crisis or her workplace performance. The 29-year-old biologist, who had worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Southern California for five years, left because of a little kayak trip. It wasn’t exactly a whitewater wilderness adventure: Wylie and her companions were more likely to encounter discarded car parts or grocery carts than frothing rapids, and much of the scenery was covered by elaborate graffiti. Parts of the stream more closely resembled a giant concrete trough than a burbling brook.
Wylie, however, was not out there for the scenery. She’d joined a dozen boaters on a 52-mile, three-day trip on the Los Angeles River in July 2008 to prove a point: that her own employer’s declaration that the L.A. River was non-navigable was simply wrong. If the boaters could make the trip, that proved that one could, in fact, navigate the river. And that, in turn, increased the likelihood that the river’s dozens of major tributaries (many of which are dry, sandy washes most of the year) fell under the jurisdiction and protection of the Army Corps of Engineers.
When Wylie’s bosses found out what she had done (Wylie says they scoured blogs and Web sites in search of incriminating photos), they were not happy. First, they threatened her with suspension. Then, in December, after Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility took up her case because they felt she was being retaliated against for her opposition to Corps policy, she resigned under a settlement that both sides agreed to keep secret.
This article begins by discussing the Los Angeles River, but then goes on to a broader discussion of the effect of the ruling on other rivers in the Western United States. Read more from the High Country News by clicking here.
You can hear from Heather herself in this YouTube video called “Heather and Goliath”:
Kayaking the Los Angeles River: Who knew you could paddle from the Burbank Airport to the Long Beach port? But you can
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 23, 2008 at 12:57 pm
From Plenty Magazine:
A great blue heron spooks the same way on every river. When confronted by kayakers, the stork-like, gray-blue bird takes a few mechanical steps, wings akimbo, then lofts 50 yards downstream to the next bend, never reasoning that if it just landed upstream of the paddlers, it could be rid of them. But these awkward birds behave the same no matter where you find them. What’s more surprising than their escape plan is that the herons, the fish on which they feed, and various other parts of this functioning ecosystem, exist here at all, 15 miles into the concrete channel that is the Los Angeles River.
For nearly 40 years, the river—the reason the Spanish chose the site that became LA—has been almost completely paved over and mercilessly straightened into an artificial canyon. A fence runs along both sides of the riverbanks, and five yards beyond that, a wall separates the river from twelve lanes of highway and the four million people that make LA proper the country’s second largest city. The river runs 51 miles through the metropolis, from its start behind a high school football field in the San Fernando Valley past Paramount Studios, downtown, and Compton, and ends in Long Beach. But many LA residents can’t even identify it. That’s just fine to the US Army Corps of Engineers, who straight-jacketed the river more than 60 years ago for flood control and restricted access to it. Which means the group of twelve boaters I’m with is breaking the law.
We are paddling near the border of Studio City in the July heat, early into a planned three-day trip. Only a few inches of water—almost all of it reclaimed from the wastewater treatment plant upstream—lap the river’s concrete banks, barely floating our fleet of yellow plastic boats. We figure the police will stop us at some point, since two members of our group were escorted from the channel twelve months ago, and because the Corps denied us a permit to float the LA River this year. When the Corps announced in the spring of 2007 that the river wasn’t a navigable waterway and therefore not eligible for full Clean Water Act protections, the trip we’d been planning mostly for sheer adventure suddenly became a cause. Now we hoped to create a grassroots uproar that would force the EPA to supersede the Corps and secure those protections. Not only was clean water at stake but so was the recently adopted $2 billion river-revitalization plan—the efforts of a city notorious for ignoring nature to reconnect with its natural history.
Read more from Plenty Magazine by clicking here.
Follow-up: Army Corps kayaker case settled — Biologist who demonstrated for the L.A. River paddles off to law school
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 10, 2008 at 6:24 amFrom the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, this press release:
The case of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers biologist whose activism has helped shape national policy has drawn to a close. Heather Wylie had faced a proposed 30-day suspension for kayaking the Los Angeles River on her own time as part of a public protest demonstration against Corps policies weakening the Clean Water Act.
Pursuant to a settlement negotiated with attorneys at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) who represented Ms. Wylie, the Corps has authorized the release of the following statement:
“Ms. Wylie has reached an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers that resolves all outstanding issues between them. The agreement does not admit any liability or wrongdoing on the part of either party. Ms. Wylie will end her government service effective December 8, 2008.”
Ms. Wylie is now preparing to go to law school to become an environmental attorney and may soon find herself of the other side of the table facing the Corps. She released the following statement:
“I am delighted with this resolution and am looking forward to the next adventure in my life. I had a great time kayaking the LA River and we were successful at stopping the Corps from rolling back Clean Water Act safeguards on the LA and Santa Cruz Rivers systems. I urge every public servant that knows of betrayal to the public trust to contact PEER and actively bring attention to these issues – we must hold our public agencies accountable in order to bring about change.”
At the urging of Wylie and others, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intervened this summer to in effect overturn Army Corps determinations severely weakening legal protections for both the L.A. and the Santa Cruz River (in Arizona). At issue is how much development and diversion can take place on these and other rivers throughout the arid West.
“The problems that Heather Wylie risked her career to address point to the need for the new Congress to act expeditiously to strengthen the Clean Water Act,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, referring to pending legislation by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and James Oberstar (D-MN). “During the Obama administration, PEER remains committed to helping conscientious public servants step forward when needed, as Heather did, to protect our resources and faithfully execute our laws.”
Attorneys Paula Dinerstein and Adam Draper of PEER represented Heather Wylie in challenging the proposed suspension and negotiating a resolution of the matter with the Corps.
Floating to save the L.A. River: Army Corps biologist facing possible dismissal defends her actions
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2008 at 5:28 amFrom the Los Angeles Times, a commentary by Heather Wylie, the Army Corps biologist who took part in a kayak trip down the LA River to protest possible revisions in the Clean Water Act and to prove the river is “navigable in fact”. She defends her actions and explains why she felt compelled to participate:
A kayak trip I took this summer may cost me my job. I am a civilian biologist working for the Army Corps of Engineers. On my personal time, I joined a trip down the Los Angeles River to protest actions by my own agency to undermine the Clean Water Act.
My superiors scoured the Internet for proof and found two photos of me on a blog. Claiming that my “participation undermined [its] authority,” the corps has proposed suspending me for 30 days, a punishment one step below termination. More than two months after advocating this penalty, it has yet to make a decision.
In July, a dozen kayakers took a three-day journey down the 52-mile L.A. River; I joined them for 20 miles. The purpose of our regatta was to show that the entire river is “navigable-in-fact” — a classification that is crucial to preventing the rollback of Clean Water Act protections throughout the watershed — and to highlight similar threats facing waterways across the nation.
More than 30 years after its enactment, the Clean Water Act is now in legal turmoil. A 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Rapanos vs. United States, first muddied the waters. The court held that to continue to regulate pollution under the Clean Water Act, the government has to prove there is a “significant nexus” between the wetlands in question and “navigable-in-fact” waters.
The term “navigable-in-fact” comes from 140 years’ worth of court rulings. Waterways that have or can generate interstate or foreign commerce through boating (including seasonal, hazardous or solely recreational use) are navigable-in-fact and thus subject to the provisions of the Clean Water Act. So our kayak trip was meant to underscore that the L.A. River — and all the streams that feed into it — deserve protection under that law.
Read more of this commentary in the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Advocacy group challenges proposed suspension of Los Angeles River kayaker
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 10, 2008 at 7:47 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
Heather Wylie’s kayaking trip down a stretch of the Los Angeles River one Saturday in July was more than a little weekend urban adventure. Wylie, a project manager in the Ventura field office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, joined local environmentalists to make a point: You can float a boat down the concrete-lined river channel, even if what you’re paddling through is mostly street runoff and treated water from sewage plants.
Wylie’s bosses were not happy. Two weeks later, they moved to suspend Wylie without pay for a month, saying she had flouted corps policy with the boat trip and e-mails she sent to office colleagues.
On Thursday, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group, filed a whistle-blower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, charging that the corps was retaliating for Wylie’s objections to the agency’s decision that weakened Clean Water Act protections in the river’s upper watershed. “I was protesting what my agency was doing because it was in contravention of the law and not in the public interest,” said Wylie, 29.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
L.A. River kayak trip gets government biologist in trouble
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 9, 2008 at 6:27 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
A federal biologist was threatened with a 30-day job suspension over a kayaking trip she took to protest perceived government threats to the Los Angeles River and other waterways, according to documents released Wednesday.
Heather Wylie, a project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles, went kayaking on the river one Saturday in July to draw attention to a proposal by the Corps that could have exempted parts of the Los Angeles River from federal clean water protections. Shortly thereafter, her supervisors told her they were proposing to suspend her for 30 days without pay because of the “unsafe and unauthorized boating expedition” and also because of an “unauthorized and inappropriate e-mail message” she had sent to co-workers about the clean water issue.
The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility announced plans Wednesday to file a whistleblower complaint on Wylie’s behalf, and released the letter she received from her supervisors.
In an interview, Wylie said her employers were violating her First Amendment rights. “It’s really silly because it was on my day off, it’s my freedom of speech, I have the right to say I don’t agree with what you’re doing,” said Wylie, who said she’s worked for the Corps in Los Angeles for 41/2 years. “I was doing the right thing and that’s what you’re supposed to do in a democracy.”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Tide may be turning on Long Beach’s beach pollution
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 16, 2008 at 6:04 amFrom the Long Beach Press-Telegram:
Trash, chemical residue and yard clippings surging down the Los Angeles River and onto local beaches were a problem long before anyone seriously tackled the environmentally detrimental trifecta of dirty trucks, polluting locomotives and soot-spewing cargo ships in the city’s port and harbor. But in spite of the vigor in which regulatory agencies, industry and elected leaders have attacked the latter problems, a consensus on how to deal with the so-called “river problem” seems far from certain.
Solutions range from diverting the river, lowering or completely removing the rock breakwater protecting Long Beach’s harbor to doing nothing, and so far, the leave-the-breakwater-and-river-alone crowd have prevailed.
But the tide may be turning.
Recent decisions by the City of Long Beach to fund a $100,000 breakwater study and newfound support from local Congressional leaders to fund breakwater research indicate that the city may be growing weary of its title as home to one of California’s dirtiest beach fronts – an ignominious designation bestowed upon the community in annual Heal the Bay beach report cards.
Hoping to keep momentum going, Surfrider is hosting a public forum on the river and pollution this evening. Find out more from the Long Beach Press-Telegram by clicking here.
Journey down the Los Angeles River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 4, 2008 at 6:33 amFrom the Palisadian Post:
If you’ve never kayaked before, you wouldn’t start by going down the Los Angeles River, a stream that travels along a mostly cemented riverbed. But Palisadian Dr. Jeffrey Tipton was a willing participant this July when he joined a 12-person group that wanted to convince the Army Corps of Engineers that the L.A. River is a navigable waterway and thus deserves protection under the Clean Water Act.
The river’s fate was suddenly at stake this spring when it lost its federal designation as navigable, according to Fran Diamond, chairman of the L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board. She told the Palisadian-Post that a rancher wanted to fill in a dry creek bed in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Chatsworth in order to develop property (Those mountains are part of the watershed for the L.A. River). After the rancher argued that the river itself was a dry streambed, the Army Corps reviewed the stream and determined that less than four miles was navigable and removed its classification on June 4.
While the classification might seem unimportant for a cemented urban riverbed, a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling stated that the Clean Water Act’s protections against pollution apply to a stream or wetland only if it had a ’significant nexus’ with ‘traditional navigable waters.’
Congressional representatives, state legislators, environmental groups and citizens such as Tipton were outraged at the Army Corps decision. ‘It is a critical issue,’ said Tipton, who is also the director of student health services at Cal State L.A. and owner of the Palisades Integrative Medical Clinic in the Pharmaca building.
‘The Army Corps was looking at the L.A. River as an ephemeral river, one that comes and goes, as more of a storm channel,’ said Tipton, who noted that taking away the designation would eliminate control of the pollutants added to the water. ‘How could they turn our river into a sewer?’ He asked. ‘It’s a living thing.’
Read the rest of this story from the Palisadian Post by clicking here.
Los Angeles River may get protection through the Clean Water Act
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 19, 2008 at 6:32 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
The Los Angeles River, the urban waterway often besmirched by graffiti, pollution and Hollywood car chases, has finally gotten a break: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stepped up as its protector.
In an unusual move, the EPA has told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it is stepping into an obscure debate over whether the river and its tributary streams are “traditional navigable waters.” The bureaucratic designation helps determine whether the upper reaches of the river’s watershed in the foothills around Los Angeles deserve protection under the federal Clean Water Act.
“It’s import for us to protect urban rivers and waterways around the country,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, an EPA assistant administrator for water. “We are stepping up to ensure that the Clean Water Act tools are applied consistently and fairly and we all work together to protect the L.A. River.”
After the Army Corps of Engineers said the river was not navigable, determined kayakers took to the cemented and graffitied river, kayaking the length to prove them wrong (see post here). Apparently that has had some effect, with the Corps now saying some miles are indeed navigable:
The EPA agrees with the Corps’ designation that some of the miles are navigable, Grumbles said. “We think it’s important to look at the rest of the river.”
He also said the EPA was stepping in to clarify issues raised by the Supreme Court decision and figure out what “navigable” means in the arid West, where rivers typically flow only during wet seasons or when filled with treated water from sewage plants.
Grumbles declined to prejudge a final decision on how much of the river might be considered navigable, and therefore on how much of its 834-square-mile watershed should be protected.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Ha! The Army Corps said it couldn’t be done, but determined kayakers prove the LA River is navigable!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 28, 2008 at 9:25 pm
From the LAist:
They did it. Geroge Wolfe and the gang kayaked, from end to end, the LA River, proving that claims by the Army Corps of Engineers that the river was not navigable, thus not a river, were wrong. Looking at all of these photos says something to us. It says “we need this river for the people!”
The journey began on Friday afternoon (photos), continued through Saturday (photos) and finished yesterday (photos below). LAist Photographer Tom Andrews stuck with the group all weekend long and here are photos from yesterday…
More pictures from the LAist by clicking here.
Keeping Western waterways clean: The L.A. River deserves protection under the Clean Water Act. Will the feds step up? asks editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2008 at 9:31 pm
From the Los Angeles Times, this editorial:
Over the course of almost 40 years, the Clean Water Act — which compels landowners to secure permits from the Environmental Protection Agency before dredging or discharging pollutants into “waters of the United States” — has become the cornerstone of our water-quality law, helping states and local governments make development decisions that keep the country’s watersheds healthy.
Here in Southern California, the Clean Water Act limits the sewage and industrial waste that flow into streams, rivers and, ultimately, the ocean. It protects washes and other seasonal waters from being bulldozed over, helping to maintain habitat for birds and other wildlife. But today, just as elaborate plans for a long-awaited Los Angeles River restoration have begun moving forward, the river and its already stressed watershed could lose some of the law’s protections.
Lay the blame on legalese, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 2006 rulingin Rapanos vs. U.S., Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that the term “waters of the United States,” to which the Clean Water Act still applies, should be interpreted more narrowly as “navigable waters” and wetlands with a “significant nexus” to them.
It was left to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which shares enforcement responsibilities for the act with the EPA, to figure out how to define those and other muddy terms, and it chose to do so, critics say, literally and narrowly. By the corps’ definitions, according to a memo released June 4, only two short stretches of the Los Angeles River are “traditionally navigable”: 2 miles in the Sepulveda Basin and 1.75 miles in Long Beach.
No one knows, just yet, what the consequences will be for Los Angeles — the river or the watershed — because the corps has not yet determined whether specific waters are or aren’t covered by the act. Once that process begins, the corps says, the entire Los Angeles River should remain protected because it meets the definition of “relatively permanent.” People won’t be able to start dumping into the waterway with impunity. The corps says that it maintains its commitment to restoring the river, and that it will be open to reevaluating the “navigability” of the currently “non-navigable” stretches.
Read the full text of this story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Glendale Narrows section of the L.A. River gets a deep cleaning
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 15, 2008 at 6:29 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
Seen from its banks, the Los Angeles River is familiar — gripped on both sides by gray concrete. But in this stretch, just southeast of Griffith Park, the river’s bottom isn’t paved over. It’s covered with dirt and smooth stones. Water trickles around islands of green trees, giving refuge to mallards and their ducklings. Still, they live in spots littered with plastic bags, foam cups, beer bottles, spray paint cans and smashed shopping carts.
So on Saturday morning, more than 2,500 volunteers, most of them teenagers, showed up at the Glendale Narrows as part of a massive cleanup of the L.A. River.
Most of the helpers were members of the Pacific American Volunteer Assn., which brought in students from as far away as Camarillo and La Habra and has chapter clubs at dozens of middle and high schools in Southern California. About 500 were members of the Anahuak Youth Soccer Assn. in northeast Los Angeles.
Some of the teens squealed in disgust at the sight of the river. Others took on their mission with gusto.
Read more on this story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Will work for Korean BBQ: Community L.A. River cleanup Saturday
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 13, 2008 at 6:13 amFrom the Emerald City Blog:
Love Korean BBQ? Missed the Great L.A. River Cleanup? Here’s your second chance — a big clean up of the Glendale narrows section of the L.A. River’s happening this Saturday morning. You’re invited to join in the cleaning fun — then nosh on Korean BBQ afterwards.
When: Saturday, June 14, 8:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Where: Griffith Park Recreation Center, 3401 Riverside Dr., Los Angeles
Cost: Free. Just show up with a hat, sunscreen and drinking water.In addition to cleaning up the river, the event’s intended to bring together an ethnically and culturally diverse group of volunteers “for a day of hands-on environmental stewardship and cross-cultural connection,” according to Heal the Bay’s press release. The Glendale Narrows is a community hub, Heal the Bay says: “Only if all communities work together will we be able to restore and revitalize California’s natural settings.”
Find out more from the Emerald City blog by clicking here.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirms non-navigable status for most of L.A. River; The ruling sparks sharp warnings that it will weaken federal Clean Water Act rules protecting the river’s sprawling 834-acre watershed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2008 at 7:51 am
This is a picture of the headwaters of the Los Angeles River (picture by the River Project). What is so non-navigable about that? From the Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials announced today that they are standing by their decision that most of the Los Angeles River is not navigable.
The ruling sparked sharp criticism from some other regulators and conservationists who warned that it will weaken federal Clean Water Act rules protecting the river’s sprawling 834-acre watershed.
They believe the ripple effect of the decision will make is easier to develop large areas of the Santa Susana, Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains because landowners will not be required to obtain certain federal permits. Some federal and state officials fear that the decision also may undermine rules against discharging wastewater and storm water into the river’s tributaries.
Corps officials said that they will continue enforcing the Clean Water Act as usual along the river. “This decision does not in any way lessen the protections on the L.A. River itself,” said Col. Thomas H. Magness IV, who oversees the Southwest regional office.
More from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Find out more about the Los Angeles River by visiting The River Project website. Also, check out Nature Trumps – an LA River blog, and one of my personal favorites, Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures.
Is the L.A. River up a creek? If the waterway is not officially deemed to be ‘navigable,’ many of its tributaries could lose important protections
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2008 at 7:47 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
Over the years, the Los Angeles River has been redrawn, clad in concrete, tainted with chemicals, invaded by countless Hollywood car chases, dismissed as a glorified storm drain. Now comes the latest slap. The city’s river can’t even float enough boats to qualify as a full-fledged navigable waterway, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
River advocates are outraged. “They’re just wrong. That’s the simple version of it. We’ve done kayak trips from the Valley to Long Beach a dozen times in the past 10 years,” said poet and writer Lewis MacAdams, founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River.
It doesn’t end there. What might seem a minor bureaucratic tweak by the Corps could have a domino effect across the river’s 834-square-mile watershed, say worried environmentalists and some federal, state and local officials.
Critics say the draft decision issued by Corps regulators weakens federal water protections for many seasonal streams that feed the river. They say this could translate into more mountain development and more dirty runoff flowing through cities to the Pacific. “Practically speaking, the March 20 decision would open up a number of tributaries and streams to the argument that the Clean Water Act doesn’t apply,” said David Beckman, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
But how is the Clean Water Act — among the strongest federal laws guarding rivers, lakes and streams — linked to the ability to float a boat down the Los Angeles River?
Find out by reading the rest of this story from the Los Angeles Times – click here.
Bridges link to Los Angeles history; conservancy is pushing for preservation of the historic structures
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 14, 2008 at 6:08 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Randal Kleiser, director of the film “Grease,” descended Sunday into a dark tunnel underneath the Sixth Street Viaduct strewn with garbage and covered in graffiti. On the other end was a downtown section of the Los Angeles River he last visited 31 years ago to film the movie’s climatic drag-racing scene. “This is very surreal,” Kleiser said, stepping on shards of glass. “It was clean and sparkly when we were here.”
As he exited the tunnel, Kleiser was struck with a rush of nostalgia. Olivia [Newton-John] was on that wall,” Kleiser said, pointing to the steep concrete slopes across the river just to the side of the viaduct. “This is definitely the place.”
The iconic scene in which John Travolta’s character wins an epic race against the film’s villain has helped make the L.A. River and its bridges some of the most recognizable locations in movies.
The vast concrete channel and its many ornate gray spans have appeared in hundreds of Hollywood films. As a collection, the bridges are a crucial symbol of Los Angeles lore that could one day aid the revitalization of the river, preservationists say. It’s why Kleiser was asked to participate in a guided tour called “Spanning History: The Bridges of the Los Angeles River.” About 400 people attended the event sponsored by the Los Angeles Conservancy, which aims to boost recognition of the city’s 14 historic L.A. River bridges as an ensemble.
The event comes at a time when some of the structures face demolition and replacement. The bridges were built between 1909 and 1938 and have all been designated historic and cultural monuments by the city. “We want to ensure that preservation is on equal footing with replacement,” said Michael Buhler, director of advocacy for the L.A. Conservancy, which cited water damage as one of the greatest threats to the structures.
Read the rest of this story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Corps reconsiders decision to exempt parts of the Los Angeles River from federal clean water protections
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 11, 2008 at 6:34 amFrom the San Jose Mercury News:
The Army Corps of Engineers is reconsidering a decision that would have exempted parts of the Los Angeles River from federal clean water protections following a chorus of objections from environmentalists and politicians.On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Corps said they would rescind the draft decision and meet with officials at the Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco who had raised concerns.
David Beckman, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and others said the decision had vast implications for streams throughout the watershed as well as rivers in other Western states.
“This determination never should have seen the light of day, but its withdrawal is a step in the right direction,” Beckman said. “The Corps should devote its efforts to restoration of the LA River, not devising ways to deny it critical environmental protection.”
More on this story from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
Artists paint the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River, but now may have to whitewash it
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 2, 2008 at 5:56 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
It was a graffiti artist’s dream come true: 10,000 square feet of concrete and a permit to paint. Families brought their kids to watch as hundreds of muralists, using their own materials and working for free, sprayed technicolor shades on the steep banks of an ugly, manmade riverbed.
Not everyone was pleased, however, with the results of the civic-minded effort, which had the city’s blessing but has rekindled debates over whether Los Angeles County should condone a practice it pays millions to combat.
Some politicians protested that parts of the mural are obscene and have attracted gang-related tags in a city where graffiti already mars homes, sidewalks and buildings. The county has given organizers until Wednesday to whitewash the mural, and neither side is backing down.
“It would be beautiful if the river went back to its natural state and was actually a river and a park,” said Alex Poli, a graffiti artist and gallery owner known as “Man One.” “But right now we have concrete walls, so the next best thing is to beautify it with art.”
Read more on this dispute over spray-painted ‘river banks’ from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here. For more information on the Los Angeles River, check out Nature Trumps: An L. A. River Blog and FOVICKS: Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures.
Los Angeles River trash continues to flow
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 20, 2008 at 6:46 amFrom the Long Beach Press-Telegram:
During the El Niño year of 2004-05, the Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Department picked up 12,255 tons — more than 24 million pounds — of trash along the city’s beaches.
The vast majority of that trash came down the Los Angeles River from cities upstream. Virtually everyone is familiar with the scenario — a cup is dropped on a street in Los Angeles, finds its way into the storm drain and then the river, and ends up on the sand in Long Beach. And much worse than cups find its way downstream.
In 2001, the Regional Water Quality Control Board passed regulations to force cities toward a zero emissions standard in six categories, including trash, metals, bacteria and more. The most visual, and currently most expensive to clean up, is trash of every shape and form.
“Last year, we budgeted $2,174,000 for beach maintenance,” said Tom Shippey, manager of the Maintenance Operations Bureau. “We get $500,000 from the county, which is spread out through the year. We pay the rest.”
A combination of dry years and work upstream has dropped the annual trash “harvest” considerably — until this year. From July 1 to mid-March this year, the city has collected 3,840 tons of trash.
It could have been much worse, according to Mark Pestrella, assistant deputy director at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and the man responsible for the Los Angeles River Flood Control District. “We are working well in interaction with the cities,” Pestrella said. “But cleaning up the river is very expensive. We’re facing a time where the citizens are going to have to decide how much they are willing to spend, and what the limits on trash there is an acceptance for. We’ve never going to get to zero, even though the mandate is to have zero by 2013.”
Read the full text of this story from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.
The river has been a source of problems for Long Beach, as it gathers a considerable amount of trash & debris from upstream, which travels down to Long Beach and gets dumped into the ocean. Aquafornia reader John sent me copies of letters he wrote to the Long Beach Press-Telegram regarding his idea for a solution:
February 20, 2008: Eliminate the River
One purpose of a river is to replenish the beaches with sand. In the case of the Los Angeles River, all that is left is the silt shoals near the Queen Mary. The river is cemented and cannot do what the Santa Ana River in Orange County does: deposit sand. Therefore, the river should be changed to a water reclamation basin. There should be dams, reservoirs, storage tanks, pumping stations, and water treatment plants built along the length of the river to process the water for the use of the communities in the Los Angeles Basin. The ground water could be replenished and each city could build extra water tanks for storage. As it stands now, enough water goes to the ocean that would otherwise, if captured, take the stress off the Delta, Colorado River, and Owens Valley water projects.
March 1, 2008
With an almost 800 foot drop in elevation, the upper river could remain undisturbed while the southern portion could be dug out and serve as a catch basin to trap all the water with large pumps and mega storage tanks. A commission should be formed to find out what the yearly water usage is for the Los Angeles Basin and what the flow of water is during rainy periods. At peak flow, there is 183,000 cubic feet of water. That is over 1.3 million gallons per second. The size and number of the water tanks could be determined. The water could be treated and distributed throughout the communities The water might as well be trapped and used because it will otherwise be wasted by allowing it to go into the ocean. There is no water navigation, fish don’t spawn in it, and it is basically wasted.
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