|
Playa Vista Update
What's News:
Playa Vista Update - We're Still in the Fight
 After well over a decade to protect and restore the historical Ballona Wetlands, the South Bay Chapter continues to fight the ill-advised development of Playa Vista. Our members rejoiced at the public acquisition of much of the existing wetlands last year. Now we're hoping to preserve the already degraded areas east of the current development, and have the City of Los Angeles construct "natural treatment wetlands" there to divert and cleanse the polluted water entering our ocean from the Ballona Watershed. This vision is entirely consistent with the City's draft plan to divert runoff for treatment and storage - the Integrated Resources Plan. If they're serious, and we hope they are, this is the place to do it.
This area is ideal for "constructed wetlands" because it is an historical wetland and sits above precious groundwater aquifers. This means that natural treatment has a greater chance of success here - and that we may also be able to store some of the treated runoff for beneficial re-use.
The chapter has filed a lawsuit with the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, the City of Santa Monica, and the Tongva Indian Tribe, challenging the Playa Vista Phase 2 Environmental Impact Report. Among other claims, Surfrider Foundation charges that the City did not adequately assess the impact of this project on sewage treatment capacity and our local water quality. We also claim the City failed to analyze the environmental benefits of using this property for a "natural treatment wetland."
Stay tuned. Our litigation will be moving forward over the next few months. As always, we need the support of our membership to make this effort a success.
South Bay Chapter of Surfrider Foundation Position on Playa Vista Development
The City of Los Angeles is, in effect, trying to "eat its cake and have it too" - maybe without even realizing it. The City is currently drafting plans to treat the polluted water running off its streets, while simultaneously approving a development project that will interfere with that goal - Playa Vista Phase 2 (in the historical Ballona Wetlands).
The Santa Monica Bay, the receiving waters from the Ballona Creek and Wetlands, is listed as an "impaired water body" and regulations to clean up the water in the bay are in their final stages of completion. These regulations, developed under Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) for the bay, will require cities in the watershed to manage their polluted stormwater runoff.
The City of Los Angeles has requested an extension on the deadline for meeting the requirements of the Bacteria TMDL so that they can develop and implement an "Integrated Resource Plan." This IRP is a concept for the City to divert, clean, and re-use the stormwater - rather than let the pollution wash from the streets, through concrete channels, straight to the ocean. The beauty of this concept, and the reason the regulators agreed to an extension, is that it will not only help eliminate pollution in our nearshore waters, it will help resolve the growing problem of diminishing freshwater supplies in California.
Simultaneously, the Ballona Creek, which dumps into the bay adjacent to Marina del Rey harbor entrance, is polluted in its own right and subject to its own pollution limits. The creek is currently depositing toxic sediment in the harbor channel. This sediment was once dredged and used for beach replenishment. Later, as the toxin loads got worse, the sediment was dumped off shore. Now, the toxin loads have gotten bad enough that the government may be required to dredge and ship the sediment to toxic landfills in New Mexico - a very expensive solution.
One semi-natural way to meet the goals of this IRP, as well as deal with the contaminated sediment problem, is to create stormwater detention basins in the lower Ballona Watershed. Fortunately, the area where Playa Vista proposes to build Phase 2 is an ideal site for "created wetlands," or "treatment wetlands," that will first allow the heavy metals and other sediment contaminants to "settle" out of the water flow. Then the water can flow to re-created wetlands where natural vegetation and biology removes nutrients and bacteria that are polluting our waves and ocean. The major fringe benefit is that this area is atop the only groundwater aquifer in the area and can be used for natural storage of a new freshwater supply. This site will require the removal of some existing buildings that are slated for demolition, and some extensive groundwater cleanup that is already mandated.
Finally, because the Clean Water Act prohibits the degradation of existing delineated wetlands, this site presents a unique opportunity to re-construct a wetland for natural treatment of our urban runoff. The remaining areas in the historical Ballona Wetlands are either protected by the Clean Water Act, and cannot be used for diverted polluted water, or are already fully developed.
But, this ideal place for restoring our urban streams, cleaning our beaches, waves and ocean, as well as storing some needed freshwater, will be lost forever if the City approves the development of Playa Vista Phase 2.
More than 95% of our coastal wetlands in southern California have already been filled and developed. Ballona Wetlands is the rare exception. We have the historic opportunity to address the intractable problem of polluted urban runoff reaching our ocean, to develop a new source of freshwater for the region, and create habitat for dwindling populations of wildlife dependent on wetlands - not to mention the quality of life benefits that come from having open space in our community. But, we will lose this opportunity forever if the Playa Vista Phase 2 development is allowed to go forward.
Your South Bay Chapter of Surfrider Foundation is working to ensure that the Playa Vista Phase 2 Environmental Impact Report be amended to include an analysis of this use of the land under the "No Project" alternative. The City Council should stick to their promise of implementing the IRP and creating an enhanced economic and environmental future for the precious California coast. We can reverse the continuing degradation of our ocean, waves and beaches with this responsible action on their part.
Top of page >>
Top of page >>
|
)
