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
Saturday, January 18, 2020
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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