Those Details the Devil Is In

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has completed its draft 20-year Sediment Management Strategic Plan for 2012-2032. The public comment period ends Wednesday, May 30th--which is vague, as they don't say if they mean 8am or 6pm or what--so I'd comment no later than the 29th if I were you at the first email address on this page. I understand the main document is over 500 pages, but a condensed version entitled "Community Meeting Boards" (second-to-last link at the right of the main Strategic Plan page) is said to give a good overview. 

Let's speak up. I understand the Devil's Gate Dam needs to be protected. I want to make sure Hahamongna is protected, too.  

A separate issue, but also important:

The Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee meets the fourth Tuesday of odd-numbered months--except this month, due to lack of a quorum. So the committee didn't get to talk about the upcoming community meetings to discuss the Environmental Impact Report schedule for the Hahamongna Multi-Benefit Project and the Hahamongna Basin Multi-Use Project.

But hey! We can talk about them here, regardless of the unfortunate mouthful of misleading names.

Because I want to get this right I'm going to quote Mary Barrie of Friends of Hahamongna, who has long been a tireless advocate for open space at Hahamongna Watershed Park. Mary's one of those heroes who reads the fine print, calls a lawyer, compares last year's map to this year's and helps the rest of us attempt to keep the city honest when it comes to Hahamongna:

"One of the important items on the agenda of last night's cancelled Hahamongna Advisory meeting was information concerning the Environmental Impact Report schedule for the Hahamongna Multi-Benefit Project and the Hahamongna Basin Multi-Use Project. Among the projects included within the Multi-Benefit Project are the much contested Sycamore Grove Sports Field and the expanded parking lot so please mark your calendars for these important meetings and pass this information on. The following information is from the city website.

Mary B"

Multi-Benefit - Multi-Use Project

EIR Schedule – the following has been scheduled:

Wednesday, June 27th, 6:30pm – Community Meeting
Pasadena City Yards, 2nd floor Large Conference Room
This meeting WILL NOT kick off the CEQA process. The purpose of the meeting is to provide information only.

Thursday, July 12th, 6:30pm – EIR Scoping Meeting #1
Salvation Army Fellowship Hall, 960 East Walnut, Pasadena, CA 91106
(Parking lot is entered from Mentor, south of Walnut)

Saturday, July 14th, 10:00am – EIR Scoping Meeting #2
Salvation Army Fellowship Hall, 960 East Walnut, Pasadena, CA 91106
(Parking lot is entered from Mentor, south of Walnut)

The Sycamore Grove Field is the same soccer field so many citizens have protested for so long. A couple of years ago we even organized a local blog day, where 23 bloggers posted their arguments for saving Hahamongna. At the ensuing city council meeting, hundreds of Pasadenish spoke out against athletic fields at Hahamongna. Not one person spoke in favor of them. Yet Sycamore Grove Field is still planned, even as the city cuts the budget in other areas.

The meetings listed above will cover other things too, some of which may be good for Hahamongna. It's always complicated, never easy, but it's ours and we do have a say.

Update 5/29: Altadena Hiker Karin Bugge writes about the planned Sycamore Grove Field in today's Patch.

Not the Last Day, After All

Word has it that the Devil's Gate Dam interim silt removal project is complete. If so, all the silt has been moved to Johnson Field from the dam. For now.

It's not the whole project by a long shot. There will be an environmental impact report before the rest of the work is done. I don't know how long that'll take or what the end result will look like, but it will be a much larger project.

Here's how Johnson Field looked last Saturday at dusk. Not nearly as bad as I'd feared. I took the photo from my usual spot, so those of you familiar with PDP's Last Day Project could make comparisons even if you've never seen Johnson Field in person.

A pan to the left:

It's a bit dark, but I hope you can see in both photos that the trees have been spared. Basically, the county workers piled the silt neatly at the north end of the sunken basin that is Johnson Field. The silt took up about half the space. Room for more silt in the future, I guess.

I have a list of disappointments related to this work, but those disappointments are (mostly) not with LA County. There's plenty of time for it to get worse but so far, the work they've done has been more sensitive than I expected. We even saw a few toads at the fountain. With a little rain we'll soon have some nice weeds growing in the silt. Maybe wildflowers.

We were treated to spectacular skies that night. More pictures to come.

Phase I

Remember our Last Day Project? For one year, on the last day of every month we stood in this spot at Hahamongna Watershed Park and looked out over Johnson Field, watching it change with the seasons.

A few hundred yards away, Devil's Gate Dam was backing up with sediment. After years of neglect plus a Station Fire and two seasons of heavy rain, the sediment must now be removed. Much discussion has ensued about how to do so, and it looks like a two-phase plan will soon begin. In order to pacify those who don't want debris-laden trucks on their street, the first phase could involve LA County piling sediment in Johnson Field as soon as the annual toad population clears out.

Toads hang out in wet places. They're about the size of a thumbnail and the color of a pebble. Because they run and hide when I come near them the pictures I've gotten are lousy, but Walt Mancini of the Pasadena Star-News got a good one. The toads will go away when the water dries. It's drying now.

I'm glad the County is willing to wait for the toads to leave. Let's be honest, these little guys are being saved long enough to get eaten by snakes and coyotes, but that's better for the ecosystem than a pile of sediment. Then again, a pile of sediment is better for a city than a failed dam in a flood.

So it looks like we might have a decent compromise, at least for now. Nobody gets everything they want but everybody gets something. That's democracy, and it's beautiful when it works. The coyotes and snakes will need to go somewhere when the trucks come. They know all about compromise. They'll likely end up in the yards of the people who didn't want trucks on their street. Are coyotes in the yard better than trucks on the street? If you live alongside Hahamongna, you may not have a choice.

I'm not crazy about piling sediment in Johnson Field, but I'm crazy about compromise. It's the only way unless we want a monarchy, and I wouldn't vote for that.

There will be a Phase II.

The next meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee will take place at 6pm this coming Tuesday, July 26th at the Pasadena City Yards - Training Room, 233 West Mountain Street, Second Floor, Pasadena 91103. On the agenda: Update on the LACDPW Post Station Fire Sediment Removal Project.

Hahamongna Upset Overturned

The Honorable Michael D. Antonovich                                3/1/11
L.A. County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles, California

Dear Supervisor Antonovich:

On behalf of the City of Pasadena, I convey strong support for your motion on today’s Supplemental Agenda (Item 60C) pertaining to the Devil’s Gate Dam Sediment Removal Project. After due deliberations, the Council unanimously expressed support for the motion.

We recognize the seriousness of the project to be undertaken, and Pasadena is prepared to cooperate fully in its implementation in the years ahead. But like you, we strongly believe that the project must be structured in a thoughtful and environmentally sensitive manner, and we agree that the approach suggested in your motion will put us on the right track for this effort. The City will be represented at today’s meeting by either Vice Mayor Victor Gordo or Councilmember Steve Madison. 

Please share this letter with your colleagues on the Board of Supervisors.  It is our hope that the motion carries and that the short term plan, to be returned within 90 days, will take into account all material environmental concerns. In this regard, our Public Works staff stands ready to confer and cooperate with the Department of Public Works, Los Angeles County, to assure that the interests of the City of Pasadena in Hahamongna Park are taken fully into account.

Please let us know how we can be helpful in pursuing this important matter.

Sincerely,
BILL BOGAARD
Mayor

Locals may already know that Supervisor Antonovich's motion passed and there will be an Environmental Impact Report before the Department of Public Works begins removing silt from behind the Devil's Gate Dam. (Yay!) The referenced "short term plan," as I understand it, will actually be returned within 30 days as opposed to 90. During this period LADPW has permission to clean out the workings of the dam itself. I hope I've got that right.

The Hahamongna walkabout is this Saturday, March 5th, and there's room for you! Sign up and join us! (I'm leading the 9am tour.) Find out why so many people continue to push to preserve this "urbanwild" place (have done so for years and will always do so).

Big thanks to the City Council for standing up for Pasadena's interests and to Pasadena PIO Ann Erdman for sharing the Mayor's letter. Thanks to Mademoiselle Gramophone for videotaping the Supervisors' meeting and reporting. Thanks to the Pasadena Star-News for this excellent editorial that states it all so clearly and evenly. And thanks to the many, many people who signed the petition (you can sign, too) and made their voices heard in support of Hahamongna. I'd list them all, but the band would play me off the stage.

There will be more challenges. Let's stay tuned.

Walkabout

Horses, dogs, children, adults, toads, disc golfers, hikers, mushroomers(!), kite flyers, coyotes, mountain bikers, snakes, birds and all kinds of other people use Hahamongna Watershed Park.

I've mentioned in previous posts that HWP is under threat from a drastic plan by the LA County Department of Public Works to remove silt from behind Devil's Gate Dam. The silt needs to be removed but environmentalists (including myself) would like to see the LADPW examine gentler ways to do it. Otherwise some of the more vulnerable critters who live in the watershed might find themselves homeless.

There are several things you can do to help protect Hahamongna, our almost-wilderness in the city:

Now - Sign the petition demanding a full Environmental Impact Report.

Now - Write to Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck to find out the truth about waste dumping at Hahamongna.

Update, thanks to Pascal Jim:
February 17 - Cleveland Elementary School: the East Arroyo Residents Association hosts "questions and answers" for District One candidates.
Incumbent Jacque Robinson voted in favor of the soccer field at Hahamongna. (Miss H. says 7pm)

Update on Walkabout: Due to this week's rain, the Walkabout originally scheduled for this coming Saturday 2/19 is being rescheduled to March 5th. I'll be leading the 9am tour. Sign up and come with me!
March 5th, 9am-12noon - Join the Hahamongna Walkabout. Tour this delicate ecosystem with a fun guide (maybe me!) and find out why Hahamongna is worth protecting.

February 23rd, 6pm - Attend the Candidate debate at Cleveland Elementary School. Ask the City Council candidates about their plans to protect Hahamongna. (You can pre-send questions to event moderator Frank Girardot at frank.girardot@sgvn.com).

Ongoing - Don't let up.

Tim has more at Altadenablog.

My Walk With Tommy

The famous Tommy, of My Life With Tommy, had an opportunity to check out Hahamongna Watershed Park the other day. He gave it countless stamps of approval (the solid ones responsibly removed by Tommy's human, Susan).

When the rain came after the Station Fire in late 2009, water rushed off the mountains bringing with it the mountain's unprotected surface. Tons of ash, sand, rocks and burned tree trunks filled the watershed. As much as Tommy enjoyed inspecting the rubble, it's got to be cleaned out from behind the dam. There is some dispute, however, as to the best method for doing so. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has looked at only one alternative: digging out 50 acres of natural vegetation (read: wildlife habitat), turning Hahamongna Watershed Park into Hahamongna Wasteland Park.

If you'd like to help prevent that, or just learn more, click on SaveHahamongna.org. For starters, from the home page you can sign up for updates and sign the Save Hahamongna petition (and check out the videos to see why a watershed is not a great place for a soccer field).

Susan, Tommy and I strolled through some of the beautiful, semi-wild acres we may soon be missing. You can do the same any time, or join the Hahamongna Walkabout sponsored by the Arroyo Seco Foundation February 19th. Tours will leave each half hour from 9:00 am to 10:30 am, so click here, learn more about the Hahamongna Walkabout and reserve your place.

Mark your calendar! Not like Tommy would do it.

Bobcats in the Back Yard

A who's who of LA County environmentalists showed up at Eaton Canyon Nature Center yesterday morning to make plans--for Hahamongna and for the future. As can be expected from a first meeting of many minds, it was inconclusive.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works plans to clear fifty acres of sediment from behind the Devil's Gate dam. I think most people agree the sediment must be removed. The problem is that LADPW has disingenuously used the Station Fire (now a year and a half gone) to declare an emergency, bypass the usual Environmental Impact Reports and tear out fifty acres of natural vegetation along with the sediment. They have investigated no alternatives.

Hahmongna is a sensitive wildlife area, a natural watershed. This is coyote habitat. It's hawk, kingfisher, rabbit, heron, rattlesnake, bobcat, ground squirrel, etc. habitat. Where are these creatures going to go, into the neighborhoods? (Yes. They'll go into the neighborhoods.)

What can you do?

Visit Hahamongna. Learn why it's important. There will be a Hahamongna Walkabout Saturday, February 19th from 9:00am - 12:00pm.
Get Educated. Read the County DPW's plan.

Demand a full environmental review.
Is there an election coming up in your district? Ask your candidates where they stand on this issue and what they plan to do about it. Regardless of what district you're in, your Pasadena City Council person votes on the fate of Hahamongna.

I've talked a lot about Hahamongna this week. PDP is not going to be All Hahamongna All The Time. But Hahamongna is dear to my heart, so I hope you won't mind me updating you on the status of this surprising gem of open space in the midst of our city.
---------------------------

About the photo:

I don't often get a chance to view Hahamongna Watershed Park from the north. I took this shot less than a week ago, looking down from above The Meadows. I hope you'll click on the photo to enlarge it.

Some features:

-the jewely pools on the left are catch basins controlled by Pasadena Water and Power. The green areas along the left (east) side of the park look that way because we had a good rain this year.

-the tanks in the right foreground belong to JPL. During the Station Fire helicopters were filling up there, so I assume the tanks contain water.

- in the center foreground, the ground is lower than in the green parts. A year ago that area was filled with vegetation. But the spring rains of 2010, then more rains late in the year, came pouring down from the mountains in a rushing stream so powerful it took out acres of growth.

-what may be harder to see is that there is still a lot of water at Hahamongna. The freeway is the light colored band across the right center of the photo. The Devil's Gate dam is slightly left of center. In front of those, the shimmer of high, brown water. Many trees are submerged.

Sediment and Sand

Although the January 25th meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee was well attended, it was a low-key affair. Folks were calm and polite. But if there had been any sand at Casita del Arroyo, one might have seen toes drawing lines in it.

Many citizens don't want Hahamongna to be another Arcadia Woodlands disaster,
LA County is all set with its Post Station Fire Sediment Removal Project for Hahamongna
and
the Committee (HWPAC) has procedures to follow. It's not always easy to know which way they're going to go.

But Tuesday night their toes were showing.

Highlights of the discussion:

Past Committee chair Tim Wendler expressed that he would like to see alternatives to the current plan that would "cause less environmental impact." (Basically, the 50 acres just north of Devil's Gate Dam will be freed of vegetation and kept that way, if the County is true to its word.)

LA County's Ken Zimmer said there are no alternatives to the plan.

Apparently not satisfied with Mr. Zimmer's answer, a Committee member whose nameplate I couldn't see asked him if alternatives had been studied.
He said there were no alternatives.
The Committee member rephrased her question. "Did the County study the possibility of reinforcing the [Devil's Gate] dam without tearing out acres of wildlife?"

"That possibility was not studied," said Mr. Zimmer.

The committee asked the County to return with alternatives to the current plan. Whether the County will do so remains to be seen. Maybe they don't have to. Maybe they can just kick that sand in the public's face.

Obviously I don't have a good feeling about this. I hope to be proven wrong.

The next meeting is currently scheduled for March 22nd, 6pm. As soon as I know the location, I'll notify you.

In the photo:
Pasadena city staff member Loren Pluth operates the computer as staff member Rosa Laveaga watches the screen. Committee members had visited nature centers in other cities to get inspiration for the Environmental Education Center planned for the Hahamongna Annex. But that's another story.

Check out Laurie Barlow's Post about it here.


UPDATE:
THIS JUST IN from Altadena Patch:
If you want to find solutions and prevent the destruction of Hahamongna Watershed Park, come to an organizational meeting of environmental activists:

• Where: 1750 N Altadena Dr, Pasadena, CA 91107 (Eaton Canyon Nature Center)
• Date: January 29, 2011
• Time: 10:00am

• In the wake of the destruction of the Arcadia Woodlands and concerns over the sediment removal plans for Hahamongna, a group of local environmentalists are meeting to discuss forming a local environmental coalition.
  The idea would be to have a group that could help influence public environmental policy in a positive direction.
  Members of the local Sierra Club, Audubon Society, and other organizations will be in attendance.
  The meeting will take place at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center.  All are welcome.
• Features: Open to All, Volunteer

• Email: dczamanske@hotmail.com 

Oak Groves

This is part of the grove at Oak Grove Park. It's close to the Jet Propulsion Lab. This part of the park can be found by walking north out of the Oak Grove Park parking lot across from La Canada Flintridge High school. It's a serene little forest, rare in an urban setting.

There's an old oak grove in Arcadia for the moment, though it's likely to be gone tomorrow. It's called the Arcadia Woodlands. But unless something drastic happens, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (same folks we discussed here) is going to dump 500,000 cubic yards of debris on it starting...pretty much now.

I guess they'll have to change the name of the Arcadia Woodlands. Arcadia means " any real or imaginary place offering peace and simplicity." I don't know what they're going to call it once it's a dump.

If you want to help preserve the Arcadia Woodlands, there are some good suggestions at the end of this informative post from LA Creek Freak. It's late, but worth a try.

We in Pasadena still have our Oak Grove Park, adjacent to Hahamongna Watershed Park. We can still even call it an oak grove. But I recommend we don't get cocky.

Other blogs participating today:
Altadena Hiker
Ballona Blog
Bipediality
Breathing Treatment
Chance of Rain
Echo Landscape Design
Greensward Civitas 
Greymatters
L. A. Creek Freak
L.A. Ecovillage Blog
L.A. Ecovillage Gardener's Weblog
Pasadena Adjacent
Pasadena Daily Photo
Pasadena Real Estate With Brigham Yen 
Slow Water Movement
Temple City Daily Photo 
The Sky is Big in Pasadena
Weeding Wild Suburbia

Also, Arcadia Patch is giving this issue excellent coverage.

WTF

The Hahamongna basin fills up with rain and silt every year. The Devil's Gate Dam has a job to do--keep all that stuff from flooding Pasadena, South Pasadena and beyond.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works Water Resources Division Flood Control District (LACDoPWWRDFCD for short) has a job to do, too--keep the dam in working condition.

Well, the LACDoPWWRDFCD's been busy, you know? So many dams (14), so little time. The sediment behind the Devil's Gate Dam has been building for some time and could have continued to do so. But the 2009 Station Fire scorched the mountains so severely they couldn't retain their soil. In early 2010, along with ash and debris, it all came flowing into the basin by the ton. Actually, it came by the cubic yard--almost a million of 'em.

Last year was an average rain year. Another year like it will bring the dam near to "uncontrolled flow at the spillway," according to Ryan Butler of the LACDoPWWRDFCD. Last Tuesday, Butler and Ken Zimmer of the LACDoPWWRDFCD presented the Postfire Sediment Removal Project (PSRP) at a meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee (HWPAC).

Beginning in September of 2011, long after this coming winter's rain (which, you may recall, could bring the dam near to "uncontrolled flow" if it's an average year), the LACDoPWWRDFCD will first create a road into the basin from Oak Grove Drive near La Canada Flintridge High School. Then they'll remove 15 acres of native willow trees from the basin. By then they figure the rains will set in so there probably won't be much sediment removal next fall and they'll cease working until the spring of 2012.

Then (two rainy seasons from now, I guess we should pray for drought?) the emergency work begins in earnest. That will be 300-400 trucks per day, 7:30am-5pm Monday through Friday between May and December, hauling sediment out of the 50 acres closest to the dam to sites in Irwindale and Azusa. The job is expected to take 3 years at a projected cost of $35 million.

The "emergency" status of this project gives the LACDoPWWRDFCD a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption, meaning an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) isn't required (even though there's still more than a year to do it--but you know, so many EIRs, so little time). The LACDoPWWRDFCD still has to get permits from the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Each of these agencies may require some sort of mitigation, environmentally speaking.

More questions will be asked. The city of La Canada Flintridge will have to weigh in. Mary Barrie of Friends of Hahamongna wrote an excellent report about the LACDoPWWRDFCD presentation. Arroyo Seco Foundation Managing Director Tim Brick expressed, among other things, his belief that this should be an issue in our upcoming municipal elections.

The stuff's gotta go. But does it have to go like this? The outgoing chairperson of the HWPAC, Tim Wendler, asked if other plans were considered before this one was chosen. "There's not a lot of options," said the LACDoPWWRDFCD's Zimmer. He added, "Deferring clean-outs doesn't work." Seeing as the LACDoPWWRDFCD has been deferring clean-outs for some years now, I guess we could say we have proof that he's right. Zimmer had the second-best line of the evening when he said, "Believe it or not, this is the fast track of the county."

The best line of the evening came from HWPAC member Maria Isenberg: "Can we get rid of that nasty little soccer field?"

I will bring you good news about Hahamongna later this week, I promise.

Here's good news about the PDP/PPM Contest:
Steve Scauzillo of Temple City (Daily Photo) is this week's winner of the PDP/PPM books contest! Steve was among those who answered correctly, "Who were the original architects of Pasadena City Hall?" It was the San Francisco firm of Bakewell and Brown. I took this week's poo bag to the Pasadena Farmers' Market and asked the beautiful daughter of one of my favorite merchants to draw a name at random from the correct answers. Steve won a copy of the lovely book At Home Pasadena from Prospect Park Media.

UPDATE: here's the county's sediment removal project.