Media Advisory: Court To Consider Flood Management in Arroyo Seco
Tuesday, February 14th, 1:30 pm
Department 85, Stanley Mosk Courthouse
111 N. Hill Street, Room 834, Los Angeles
The long-awaited court hearing on the challenge of LA County Flood Control District’s program to remove 2.4 million cubic yards of sand and sediment from Hahamongna Watershed Park and truck it to distant landfills will be heard in Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles, Judge James Chalfant presiding. The Arroyo Seco Foundation and Pasadena Audubon Society joined together more than two years ago to challenge the plan, which they refer to as the “Big Dig,” on environmental grounds. The lawsuit is widely viewed as a test of the County’s commitment to sustainable storm water management and river restoration.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by attorneys Mitchell Tsai and Christina Caro, allege that the County’s Environmental Impact Report is deficient because of these important concerns:
- After having failed to remove any significant sediment from the Hahamongna basin for twenty years, the County still will not conduct an ongoing sediment management program;
- The plan involves the permanent destruction of more than 50 acres of rare streamzone habitat in one of Southern California’s most precious alluvial canyons;
- The EIR fails to evaluate critical linked components of the excavation program, particularly the five-mile pipeline from Hahamongna to Eaton Canyon;
- The plan does not detail a mitigation program for the extensive habitat destruction it will create; and
- The noise, dust, air pollution, traffic congestion and negative health impacts of the project have not been fully evaluated.
The plaintiffs seek a more sustainable sediment management program that takes into account community concerns about traffic, noise, habitat destruction, and the other negative aspects of the program.
Fact Sheet | Time for a New Look
For more information: savehahamongna@arroyoseco.org
Mitchell Tsai, Attorney, (626) 381-9248
Tim Brick, Arroyo Seco Foundation Managing Director, (626) 639-4092