Temescal Stormwater Update

The overriding question during the Temescal Stormwater Project briefing April 22 at the Palisades Branch Library was whether the proposed $15.9-million system is actually needed during the ‘wet’ season (October through April), in terms of reducing bacterial flow into Santa Monica Bay at Will Rogers State Beach. The City of L.A. project, which would be built below Temescal Canyon Road, just north of Pacific Coast Highway, would funnel rainwater runoff to a diversion tank, then to a hydro-separator and finally into a 1.25-million-gallon holding tank before traveling to the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant in El Segundo. Many residents at the meeting were concerned that stormwater runoff is not to blame for high bacteria counts at Will Rogers and a sewer smell that can be detected along PCH between Chautauqua and Temescal. ‘You need to investigate the sewer system to make sure it isn’t going into the ocean,’ resident Bernard Kinsey told city officials. ‘This may have nothing to do with water runoff. This sewage thing is a real deal.’   ’I have filed an appeal,’ Patrick Hart said. ‘There are 60-year-old sewer pipes that are mixing with storm-water drains. The water is contaminated from that.’   ’We are looking at sewers and odors, but our study is not complete,’ said Shahram Kharaghani, the Bureau of Sanitation’s Watershed Protection Division Manager. ‘I will share it with you later.’   ’Will this study entail source tracking?’ resident Angela Petillo asked.   Source tracking is done by taking water samples from three separate sites, before and after rain, in order to determine where water-borne bacteria is coming from. ‘This is a much more difficult testing,’ said Kharaghani, who added that money was being sought for that purpose. The L.A. County Department of Health reported no beach closures during the past 18 months in the general area of the Temescal Canyon storm-drain site. The last beach closure, in 2007, was caused by a neighborhood sewage spill.   Also at last week’s meeting, Kendrick Okuda, Bureau of Engineering Proposition O Program Manager, reported that although the Temescal project is exempt from the CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and doesn’t require an Environmental Impact Study, his department will respond to neighborhood concerns by conducting a study to see whether an EIR should actually be undertaken. This initial study will address noise, traffic and geology concerns.   ’We’re pausing the project because of you,’ Okuda told the audience. ‘I’ve also withdrawn the City Coastal Committee permit.”