DockRat
03-22-2014, 06:37 AM
The river/swamp section from PCH to Lomita blvd is completed. Now the lake is next.
DR
Ambitious three-year Machado Lake cleanup (finally) set to begin in Harbor City
Machado Lake in Harbor City is slated to undergo a major renovation and dredging to attempt to restore the ecosystem. Monday, March 20, 2014. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)
By Donna Littlejohn, The Daily Breeze
POSTED: 03/20/14, 8:01 PM PDT | 0 COMMENTS
Machado Lake in Harbor City is slated to undergo a major renovation and dredging to attempt to restore the ecosystem. Lots of pollution and general neglect can be seen. Monday, March 20, 2014. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)
Surrounded by refineries and busy streets, Harbor City’s Machado Lake from a distance appears to be an unexpected metropolitan oasis.
But get a little closer and the trash is hard to miss. Even harder to miss are the signs of reality that go largely unseen: pesticides, homeless encampments behind the shoreline brush, and invasive species such as black water snakes and snapping turtles that don’t belong there.
An ambitious undertaking to dredge and cap the bottom of Machado Lake — a storm water run-off located within Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park — is about to begin after years of delays with a 1:30 p.m. Saturday groundbreaking now scheduled at the shoreline.
“It’s a big deal,” said Martin Byhower, the Chadwick School science teacher and environmental biologist who has led restoration and nature walks at the park for many years.
A very big deal.
In fact, as noted by Mark Gold, adjunct professor for UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the former president of Heal the Bay, in an L.A. Observed blog post, it’s the largest project in the state being taken on under the Proposition O Clean Water Bond measure passed by California voters in 2004.
And while it might not fix everything that’s wrong with the park and lake, Byhower said the $111 million project will go a long way toward making the lake — and the 231-acre park it’s in — a cleaner and more nature-friendly environment.
“I don’t think we’re there yet and I don’t think we’ll be there after this project is done,” Byhower said. “But we’ll be a heck of a lot closer to it.”
A portion of the project on the adjacent and connected Wilmington Drain has already been done. But the Machado Lake and park project are by far the biggest undertakings of the Proposition O improvements.
Work begins this month and is expected to end in spring 2017. Most of the park, at 25820 Vermont Ave. on the border of Harbor City and Wilmington, will be closed to the public for those three years.
The dredging, according to the city’s Bureau of Engineering, will be performed using a hydraulic vacuum process in phases. Six zones will be dredged separately during the course of the work.
Included in the toxic sediments are DDT, PCBs and metals (lead, copper, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, nickel and zinc), which city officials say have accumulated over the years.
The material then will be set on dry land to be dewatered and then transported to a certified facility.
Along with the toxic sediments, workers likely will be bringing up “a lot of 55-gallon trash cans and a lot of shopping carts,” Byhower said.
The bottom of the lake will be capped with an AquaBlok bio-layer and an oxygenation system will be constructed to improve circulation. The depth of the lake, about a few feet, also will be increased significantly, making it more difficult for non-native species to multiply.
Restoration work is planned for the surrounding park areas where invasive plants and vegetation will be removed and native species will be replanted. Also on the project agenda will be park landscaping and irrigation.
Another issue to be resolved is how to rid the park of what has become a large homeless encampment along with criminal activity such as drug sales and prostitution.
The project has been delayed several times, including for a year after an endangered species of songbird was discovered.
Many of the delays over the past decade, however, resulted from the complex nature of the undertaking, which involves numerous agencies, according to the L.A. Observed post.
But Byhower contends the park and lake also were something of an afterthought.
“I suspect there were other louder constituencies like Echo Park Lake,” which was done earlier under Proposition O funds, Byhower said. “Harbor Regional Park is in a disenfranchised area; there aren’t a lot of voters there.”
It’s important, he said, to hire enough full-time staff, including a naturalist, to help monitor the park and make sure it remains clean and secure. A permanent fence and parking fees also will likely be discussed for the future.
“I just hope money begets money and we’ll have a nice park,” Byhower said. “If good people come, that will keep out the bad people.”
The restored lake will feature fishing piers, he said, although it will be a “catch-and-release” area where the fish are not expected to be eaten. :Applause:
Byhower said he expects native species to return to the park once the work is done.
“Nature’s resilient and the end result should be an ecosystem that may not support a total biomass but it should support a much more diverse and native flora and fauna,” he said. “It can’t be anything but good for the wildlife, ultimately. The birds will certainly come back.”
http://www.dailybreeze.com/environment-and-nature/20140320/ambitious-three-year-machado-lake-cleanup-finally-set-to-begin-in-harbor-city
DR
Ambitious three-year Machado Lake cleanup (finally) set to begin in Harbor City
Machado Lake in Harbor City is slated to undergo a major renovation and dredging to attempt to restore the ecosystem. Monday, March 20, 2014. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)
By Donna Littlejohn, The Daily Breeze
POSTED: 03/20/14, 8:01 PM PDT | 0 COMMENTS
Machado Lake in Harbor City is slated to undergo a major renovation and dredging to attempt to restore the ecosystem. Lots of pollution and general neglect can be seen. Monday, March 20, 2014. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)
Surrounded by refineries and busy streets, Harbor City’s Machado Lake from a distance appears to be an unexpected metropolitan oasis.
But get a little closer and the trash is hard to miss. Even harder to miss are the signs of reality that go largely unseen: pesticides, homeless encampments behind the shoreline brush, and invasive species such as black water snakes and snapping turtles that don’t belong there.
An ambitious undertaking to dredge and cap the bottom of Machado Lake — a storm water run-off located within Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park — is about to begin after years of delays with a 1:30 p.m. Saturday groundbreaking now scheduled at the shoreline.
“It’s a big deal,” said Martin Byhower, the Chadwick School science teacher and environmental biologist who has led restoration and nature walks at the park for many years.
A very big deal.
In fact, as noted by Mark Gold, adjunct professor for UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the former president of Heal the Bay, in an L.A. Observed blog post, it’s the largest project in the state being taken on under the Proposition O Clean Water Bond measure passed by California voters in 2004.
And while it might not fix everything that’s wrong with the park and lake, Byhower said the $111 million project will go a long way toward making the lake — and the 231-acre park it’s in — a cleaner and more nature-friendly environment.
“I don’t think we’re there yet and I don’t think we’ll be there after this project is done,” Byhower said. “But we’ll be a heck of a lot closer to it.”
A portion of the project on the adjacent and connected Wilmington Drain has already been done. But the Machado Lake and park project are by far the biggest undertakings of the Proposition O improvements.
Work begins this month and is expected to end in spring 2017. Most of the park, at 25820 Vermont Ave. on the border of Harbor City and Wilmington, will be closed to the public for those three years.
The dredging, according to the city’s Bureau of Engineering, will be performed using a hydraulic vacuum process in phases. Six zones will be dredged separately during the course of the work.
Included in the toxic sediments are DDT, PCBs and metals (lead, copper, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, nickel and zinc), which city officials say have accumulated over the years.
The material then will be set on dry land to be dewatered and then transported to a certified facility.
Along with the toxic sediments, workers likely will be bringing up “a lot of 55-gallon trash cans and a lot of shopping carts,” Byhower said.
The bottom of the lake will be capped with an AquaBlok bio-layer and an oxygenation system will be constructed to improve circulation. The depth of the lake, about a few feet, also will be increased significantly, making it more difficult for non-native species to multiply.
Restoration work is planned for the surrounding park areas where invasive plants and vegetation will be removed and native species will be replanted. Also on the project agenda will be park landscaping and irrigation.
Another issue to be resolved is how to rid the park of what has become a large homeless encampment along with criminal activity such as drug sales and prostitution.
The project has been delayed several times, including for a year after an endangered species of songbird was discovered.
Many of the delays over the past decade, however, resulted from the complex nature of the undertaking, which involves numerous agencies, according to the L.A. Observed post.
But Byhower contends the park and lake also were something of an afterthought.
“I suspect there were other louder constituencies like Echo Park Lake,” which was done earlier under Proposition O funds, Byhower said. “Harbor Regional Park is in a disenfranchised area; there aren’t a lot of voters there.”
It’s important, he said, to hire enough full-time staff, including a naturalist, to help monitor the park and make sure it remains clean and secure. A permanent fence and parking fees also will likely be discussed for the future.
“I just hope money begets money and we’ll have a nice park,” Byhower said. “If good people come, that will keep out the bad people.”
The restored lake will feature fishing piers, he said, although it will be a “catch-and-release” area where the fish are not expected to be eaten. :Applause:
Byhower said he expects native species to return to the park once the work is done.
“Nature’s resilient and the end result should be an ecosystem that may not support a total biomass but it should support a much more diverse and native flora and fauna,” he said. “It can’t be anything but good for the wildlife, ultimately. The birds will certainly come back.”
http://www.dailybreeze.com/environment-and-nature/20140320/ambitious-three-year-machado-lake-cleanup-finally-set-to-begin-in-harbor-city