We go to trial on May 9th, 2023 at 1:30 PM in Dept 85 at the Downtown L.A. Superior Court
Please read pages 5 to 8 of our Closing Brief
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t6PCNNRIB_7UtRHMLax3gmluykjJyvWA/view?usp=sharing
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Friday, June 3, 2022
We're heading to the Courtroom!
A Message from BEEP's President Rex Frankel:
About Our Lawsuit...
In 1985 I started fighting to save West LA's Ballona Wetlands, which I grew playing in. Since then we have doubled the size of the preserve, now 625 acres in public hands and another 100 acres of bluffs privately preserved and publicly accessible.
For the last 11 years, I have led educational hikes at Ballona Wetlands for the LA Hiking Meetup Group. My most recent hike at Ballona was April 9th: https://www.meetup.com/los-angeles-hiking-group/events/285089962/
In January of 2021, the Ballona wetlands advocacy group that I have run since 1993, called the Ballona Ecosystem Education Project, or BEEP, filed suit against the State of California which has owned the Ballona Wetlands since 2003. In December of 2020, the State bureaucracy approved a ten year bulldozing plan to allegedly “restore' this natural area to its former state before the area was colonized by European settlers. BEEP's lawsuit to overturn the ten year plan seeks a more community-friendly project.
BEEP needs tax-deductible donations to help pay our attorney and court costs. Please email me at rexfrankel@yahoo.com or text me at 310-738-0861 if you'd like to donate.
WHAT BEEP IS FIGHTING FOR:
Comparing the State Plan to BEEP's Plan
--DO WE REPAIR BALLONA IN 10 YEARS OR 1 YEAR?
--DO WE CONVERT IT INTO SOMETHING IT NEVER WAS? OR DO WE “RESTORE” IT ?
--SHOULD IT BE 1 HABITAT TYPE OR 3?
--SHOULD THE PUBLIC BE BLOCKED FROM HIKING TRAILS FOR TEN YEARS OR SHOULD THE TRAILS BE OPENED NOW?
--SHOULD IT COST $200 MILLION OR AN AFFORDABLE PRICE?
--MUST ALL WILDLIFE AND PLANTS AND ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES BE WIPED OUT
OR CAN WE JUST CLEAN UP TRASH, PULL WEEDS, DO MINOR PLUMBING REPAIRS, AND
ADD CLEAN FRESH WATER?
The next court hearing is August 2nd at 1:30PM in Dept 85 at Downtown LA Superior Court. For the status of BEEP's Ballona lawsuit, search here: https://www.lacourt.org/casesummary/ui/ with this Case Number: 21STCV03657
see the 6th story in this blog post: https://playavistapeople.com/?fbclid=IwAR0zWkCwG-7cQWHDCMJz-M_bgCNmdbKK3W_BD4T7M6c4JKZPwUg1bs7sIsk
‐‐---‐-----------------
VIDEOS AND OTHER INFO:
BEEP's Websites are:
http://ballona-news.blogspot.com/
http://DontBulldozeBallona.com
Ballona is not so degraded to require a 10 year bulldozing remake, 11/10/2021
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10227846249368664 11/11/2021
UCLA-USC STUDY CONTRADICTS BULLDOZER PLAN:
On the USC and UCLA scientists’ Ballona Historical Ecology Study, which concluded that a historically accurate restoration is the opposite of the State's plan.
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10228160487504421
Need for industrial scale bulldozing plan is fake; 1/23/2022
SMMC board won't endorse Ballona bulldozing, 1/23/2018
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10228274424152766
the issues in BEEP's lawsuit (5 min) 11/8/2017
https://youtu.be/rRfBRG1OBZo same video with captions
government agencies systematically drying the Ballona Wetlands (4 min) Coastal Commission hearing 12/14/2017
5/08/2019 Coastal Commission hearing on Ballona restoration (see 40:10, need for historically accurate restoration plan)
10/18/2017 to Sierra Club (EDIT) BEEP's President explaining why the Ballona bulldozing project is not a restoration (3 min.)
10/18/2017 full Sierra Club presentation (58 min, 0-29 speech, 29-58 audience questions)
OTHER ISSUES:
BEEP's website on Native plants of the Ballona Wetlands, is linked to Google image search, so you can ID what you see, or even better, choose plants for your garden that make it a haven for local wildlife
http://ballonaplants.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10228578171066249
proposed Ballona bluffs donation to BEEP, 3/18/2022
Saturday, January 18, 2020
We support finding "common ground" on Ballona's Future: Let's all talk, not just Bureaucrats in a Locked Room...
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-16/activists-cant-stop-fighting-over-ballona-wetland
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-12-23/ballona-wetlands-restoration-plan-conservationists-split
--------------------------------
To the Editor, LA Times:
In welcoming bulldozers to Ballona, Jon Christensen (LA Times, 1/16) prioritizes recreation and economic benefit for our human species, while downplaying the damage to what remains of the natural ecosystem.
Massive reconfiguration of the human-degraded landscape might yield bicycle paths, but would that be "restoration"? Or should we pursue the less intrusive path toward wetlands recovery, "just add water"?
Serious decisions must be made about the recently released Environmental Impact Report, and it's a mistake to dismiss dissident voices.
—Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown serves on the state's Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-12-23/ballona-wetlands-restoration-plan-conservationists-split
--------------------------------
To the Editor, LA Times:
In welcoming bulldozers to Ballona, Jon Christensen (LA Times, 1/16) prioritizes recreation and economic benefit for our human species, while downplaying the damage to what remains of the natural ecosystem.
Massive reconfiguration of the human-degraded landscape might yield bicycle paths, but would that be "restoration"? Or should we pursue the less intrusive path toward wetlands recovery, "just add water"?
Serious decisions must be made about the recently released Environmental Impact Report, and it's a mistake to dismiss dissident voices.
—Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown serves on the state's Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Dealing the Bay Away & Not Reading Their Own Scientists' Reports
...So Why Is Heal The Bay the Loudest Proponent of removing the levees and "watering" our Ballona Wetlands with polluted urban runoff from Ballona Creek...
from: 1/2/2020 Argonaut Newspaper
https://argonautnews.com/l-a-is-losing-the-battle-against-urban-runoff/
"At the current rate of progress, the Marina del Rey watershed would need more than 28 centuries to meet next year’s EPA target...
...Marina del Rey’s watershed management program, which includes parts of Venice and Culver City, has reached just one fifth of 1% (0.21%) of its EPA target for the year 2021, achieving 1.41 acre feet of additional stormwater retention capacity since December 2012 out of a target of 671.69 acre feet — and that’s including flood control upgrades to Oxford Basin Lagoon. “If the current rate of implementation continues, the final 2021 goal will be achieved in the year 4877,”
and From
https://healthebay.org/stormwater-report/
https://healthebay.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Stormwater-Report-FINAL.pdf
page 8:
The Ballona Creek Watershed Management Group: As of December 2018, the Ballona Creek Watershed Management Group achieved a retention capacity of 74.58 AF since 12/28/12, which was 3.58% complete towards the 2021 final retention capacity goal of 2,081 AF (Table 1 and Figure 2). This group was out of compliance with its 2016 deadline. There remained a retention capacity of 1,061.42 AF to be achieved by the 2019 interim deadline and a total retention capacity of 2,006.42 AF to be achieved by the 2021 final deadline. If the current rate of implementation continues, the final 2021 goal will be achieved in the year 2180
----------------------------------------
(THINK FLOODING BALLONA WITH POLLUTED WATER IS A BAD IDEA, READ THIS: OUR PLAN: PAGE 7 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_77mAmDMAkGdEAFurhc8sLzarePIcMMi/view):
the 1-year-to-success plan:
HIGHLIGHTS: BEEP's Proposal features 3 parallel creek channels to restore the historical “delta” geography: the existing channel in the middle for floods, tsunamis and pollution; and 2 new smaller shallow outside channels for clean habitat. The existing Ballona Creek levees will remain where they are, protecting the wetlands north and south of the creek from polluted urban street drainage.
The wetlands and higher ground on each side of the existing Ballona Creek levees will be re-watered
with clean water from the Ballona Creek dry season treatment plants in Culver City (subject of an EIR last fall, construction expected in 2020); water will flow by gravity from the 3 upstream plants via a pipe on each creek levee to the restored parallel creeks.
Also, on the south side of Ballona Creek, non-contaminated groundwater pumped from underneath buildings in the Playa Vista development and sent to L.A.'s Hyperion sewage treatment plant or dumped into Ballona Creek and the ocean (pumped to keep buildings from sinking) will instead be piped into currently-dry wetlands west of Lincoln Blvd. The wetlands habitat of 200 years ago will then largely restore itself.
As we have seen several times at Ballona in our work since 1985, when we add freshwater, remove trash and concrete and and leave the rest alone, nature will restore Ballona for us.
from: 1/2/2020 Argonaut Newspaper
https://argonautnews.com/l-a-is-losing-the-battle-against-urban-runoff/
"At the current rate of progress, the Marina del Rey watershed would need more than 28 centuries to meet next year’s EPA target...
...Marina del Rey’s watershed management program, which includes parts of Venice and Culver City, has reached just one fifth of 1% (0.21%) of its EPA target for the year 2021, achieving 1.41 acre feet of additional stormwater retention capacity since December 2012 out of a target of 671.69 acre feet — and that’s including flood control upgrades to Oxford Basin Lagoon. “If the current rate of implementation continues, the final 2021 goal will be achieved in the year 4877,”
and From
https://healthebay.org/stormwater-report/
https://healthebay.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Stormwater-Report-FINAL.pdf
page 8:
The Ballona Creek Watershed Management Group: As of December 2018, the Ballona Creek Watershed Management Group achieved a retention capacity of 74.58 AF since 12/28/12, which was 3.58% complete towards the 2021 final retention capacity goal of 2,081 AF (Table 1 and Figure 2). This group was out of compliance with its 2016 deadline. There remained a retention capacity of 1,061.42 AF to be achieved by the 2019 interim deadline and a total retention capacity of 2,006.42 AF to be achieved by the 2021 final deadline. If the current rate of implementation continues, the final 2021 goal will be achieved in the year 2180
----------------------------------------
(THINK FLOODING BALLONA WITH POLLUTED WATER IS A BAD IDEA, READ THIS: OUR PLAN: PAGE 7 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_77mAmDMAkGdEAFurhc8sLzarePIcMMi/view):
the 1-year-to-success plan:
HIGHLIGHTS: BEEP's Proposal features 3 parallel creek channels to restore the historical “delta” geography: the existing channel in the middle for floods, tsunamis and pollution; and 2 new smaller shallow outside channels for clean habitat. The existing Ballona Creek levees will remain where they are, protecting the wetlands north and south of the creek from polluted urban street drainage.
The wetlands and higher ground on each side of the existing Ballona Creek levees will be re-watered
with clean water from the Ballona Creek dry season treatment plants in Culver City (subject of an EIR last fall, construction expected in 2020); water will flow by gravity from the 3 upstream plants via a pipe on each creek levee to the restored parallel creeks.
Also, on the south side of Ballona Creek, non-contaminated groundwater pumped from underneath buildings in the Playa Vista development and sent to L.A.'s Hyperion sewage treatment plant or dumped into Ballona Creek and the ocean (pumped to keep buildings from sinking) will instead be piped into currently-dry wetlands west of Lincoln Blvd. The wetlands habitat of 200 years ago will then largely restore itself.
As we have seen several times at Ballona in our work since 1985, when we add freshwater, remove trash and concrete and and leave the rest alone, nature will restore Ballona for us.
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