LCF Impacts
425 trucks per day
Massive air pollution from dust and diesel trucks
Closed recreational trails for hikers and horses
Seven schools in immediate area
Permanent scarring of 50 acres of precious stream habitat
Here's Hahamogna in the LCF Outlook
The La Cañada High Track Team Loves to Run in Hahamongna
. . . But Not After the Trucks Come
Diesel Exhaust
Initial LCF Traffic Assessment
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Hahamongna Updates
The View from La Cañada Flintridge
Los Angeles County is now planning a mammoth project to remove 2.4 million cubic feet of sediment from Devil's Gate Dam and haul it to Irwindale and Azusa.
The program, which was approved by the County Supervisors in November 2014, will cost $100 million and include:
425 diesel trucks each day for consecutive years beginning in the fall of 2011.
50,000 truckloads through the streets of our community per years; 150,000 total
Permanent destruction of prime riparian habitat in 50 acres of the most environmental sensitive zone of the Arroyo Seco.
Construction of two permanent 30 foot wide road down near the dam down into the Hahamongna basin.
Massive air quality impacts from the dust and diesel funds collecting in the Hahamongna basin at the western edge of La Cañada.
When the Flood Control District originally announced a sediment reduction program after the Station Fire in 2009, they intended to conduct the project without any environmental review, community concerns about its scale and impacts led the County Supervisors to instruct staff to prepare a full environmental impact report, which the are now doing. The plan then was to remove 1.6 million cubic yards of sand and sediment from the basin at a projected cost of $34 million, but by the time they finished the environmental impact report, the amount to be removed has increased along with the cost and impacts to our neighborhoods.
There are many concerned citizens and a coalition of organizations who believe this project is too massive and should scaled back significantly. For example, an ongoing program of sediment removal and using flood flows to remove sediment can effectively manage the flood basin and preserve habitat. The La Cañada City Council considered the impacts at several meetings. The Pasadena City Council established a Sediment Working Group of experts and stakeholders to develop a more sustainable approached and unanimously endorsed the recommendations of that group which would reduce the impacts on our neighborhoods to about one quarter of the County's program. There are other ways to manage the basin in a more environmentally sensitive manner, but the County does not seem to have taken them seriously. For that reason, the Arroyo Seco Foundation and the Pasadena Audubon Society filed a lawsuiting the County Flood Control District's Environmental Impact Report on December 11, 2014.
Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, and Altadena all have a great deal at stake and need to take the lead in insisting that the County develop a more environmentally sensitive plan, but this is an issue that affects many other regions in Southern California. A new paradigm for flood management is need that does not just rely on concrete and trucks. This should be a widely discussed issue in the upcoming municipal elections in Pasadena and La Cañada. Only public pressure, regulatory hammers and litigation can ensure a more sensible and sensitive management plan.
We urge you and local organizations to get involved and support the lawsuit to protect Hahamongna and our neighborhoods.