Health & Fitness
L.A. River Restoration Boosts Ballona Plans
A wise federal funding decision to jackhammer out a portion of the L.A. River concrete flood channel and restore it to habitat area bodes well for a similar approach at Ballona
The Los Angeles Times reported this week (1) that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to recommend $1 billion in funding to return a portion of the L.A. River's concrete and steel flood control channel back to natural earthen bank, surrounded by wetland habitat. This plan, long advocated by Friends of the L.A. River (2) and other mainstream environmental groups, is conceptually similar to multiple alternative plans for the Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve.
The $1.08-billion project cost would be shared equally by the federal government and city and state sources. Mayor Eric Garcetti was instrumental in securing this commitment. "If all goes according to plan", he said, "we might begin to see some funding allocated for this effort next year, and jackhammers on concrete not long after that."
The Ballona Wetlands restoration could come next, and the L.A. River project solidifies government and community commitment to correct past civil engineering decisions which produced very adverse consequences. The County and Feds built Ballona Creek's concrete channel, which unintentionally strangled the Ballona wetlands by isolating it from daily tides. The County then compounded the damage by dumping millions of cubic yards of dredge spoils from Marina development atop 200 acres of adjacent tidal wetland. Now 14 to17 feet high and covered mostly with weeds, this fill dirt south of Fiji Way must be excavated down to 2 feet or lower elevation before incoming tides can again nourish the land as they had done prior to Marina construction.
The one alternative plan for Ballona, to be published in an upcoming Environmental Impact Report, would remove about ¾ mile of the straight, concrete-banked Ballona Creek channel west of Lincoln Blvd. and replace it with an earthen-banked meandering channel surrounded by tidal marsh. Other alternatives also will propose some degree of concrete channel removal and habitat restoration (or reconstruction, if you're hung up on semantics). Friends of Ballona Wetlands has consistently supported a comprehensive tidal restoration of Ballona.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the decision is a major step toward bringing "the L.A. River back to life and promises much greater opportunity for economic and recreational development, providing thousands of additional jobs and billions of dollars of increased investment in the local economy." A recent study by the Center for American Progress (3) showed that each dollar invested by taxpayers in coastal wetland restoration returns more than $15 in net economic benefits.
Enjoy Your Ballona Wetlands!
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(3) Conathan, M., Buchanan, J., and S. Polefka 2014. The Economic Case for Restoring Coastal Ecosystems. Center for American Progress and OXFAM America
