The Los Angeles River

Above is a map of the Los Angeles River watershed circa 1800.¹

To the right is a picture of the Los Angeles River in 1900 near present-day downtown.¹

For the centuries prior to urbanization, the Los Angeles River took on two forms: small and predictable in the dry summer months and large and unpredictable in the wet winter months. In these winter months, the river flooded a large area of land (flood plain), as can be seen in the map above. Due to the fertile land that the Los Angeles River provided, the region was a good place for agriculture; a Spanish pueblo was established in the 1700s. By 1900, after California had become a state in the U.S., Los Angeles was a city of over 100,000 people.² In 1913, the Owens Valley Aqueduct was completed in order to keep up with the demand for fresh water. In 1914, however, and again in 1934, the Los Angeles River flooded and caused massive destruction. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers then began work on a 30-year project to channelize the river with concrete. In the early 1990s, the Corps determined that the river’s levees needed to be raised, costing $300 million.¹

On the left is a picture of the Los Angeles River in present day. As you can see, it is channeled with concrete and does not contain much plant or animal life.³

The channelization of the Los Angeles River is still impacting the ecosystem today. By constraining the river, the only use of the river is to prevent flooding. The water is no longer able to produce fertile land and it is not suitable for drinking water since in the summer months, most of the water comes from a reclamation plant. Trash from streets and storm drains end up in the river, creating an unsafe habitat for animals and adding to the dirtiness of the water. Nonnative plants and animals have been introduced to the ecosystem; these species have competed with and often won against native plants and animals for limited resources. Increasing population causes an increase in treated waste water and storm outflow into the river, causing the need for higher and higher levees. Finally, with all the concrete available, it is no wonder that there is graffiti all along the river. All of these human impacts have caused extremely harmful effects on the river, its beauty, and its future.⁴

In the future, I think that people will be able to use the Los Angeles River for more recreation. A recent example of this was in August of 2011 when the Los Angeles Conservation Corps sponsored a kayak trip down the river.⁵ Full restoration would be ideal; this would increase the ratio of parkland to people  and double the population density of the parts of the city not in the flood basin, but it would also cause over 300 square miles of urbanized land to be destroyed. I predict that the cost will be too much to restore the river, but with the extra outflow from increased populations, more flood control will be needed in order to prevent damage. As can be seen in Table 1 below, in 1992, it was estimated that a flood would cost $2,300,000,000 in damages, and since the population and urbanization has increased within the past 19 years, the cost would likely be more now. Therefore, higher levees will be built and prospects for the ecosystem will not look good.

	1914	1938	1968-9	1992(est)
Deaths	0	87	73	500,000 at risk
Damage In adjusted millions	$162.1	$888.8	$31	$2,300
Flooded Area % of non-mountainous area	110 sq mi 10%	168 sq mi 15%	N/A	82 sq mi 7%
Peak River Outflow In cubic feet/second	31,400	99,100	102,000	N/A

Table 1 ⁶

The biggest thing that can be done to improve human impacts on the Los Angeles River is raising awareness. Raising awareness on the benefits of parkland to the Los Angeles region, the effects of the channelization of the river, and the effects of trash and reclamation water in the river will help educate a population that is generally ignorant to the environment around them. Though most people will look at the price tag of restoration first, I think that raising awareness about the tragedy of the Los Angeles River will at least cause people to start thinking about how they can conserve the ecosystem that is in their backyard.

Below is a scene from the movie Grease that took place on the Los Angeles River!⁷

 

Works Cited:

¹Loomis, Alan A. "The Los Angeles River: Past, Present, and Possibilities." Delirious LA. N.p.,

               n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.deliriousla.net/lariver/>.

²"History of the River." The Los Angeles River. Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation,

               2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. http://thelariver.com/about/history-of-the-river/.

3Bullock, Dave. Main Street Bridge. 27 Aug. 2009. eecue. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. 
                <http://eecue.com/p/31378/Main-Street-Bridge.html>.  

4"Human Impact on an Urban River." Los Angeles Education Project. N.p., 1995. Web. 28 Nov. 

               2011. <http://www.laep.org/target/units/river/tour/hi.html>. 

5Medina, Jennifer. "Los Angeles River Tries On New Role, as Waterway." The New York Times 

               25 Aug. 2011: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. 

               <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26river.html>. 

6Gumprecht, Blake. The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth. Baltimore: The 

               Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Google Book Search. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. 

               <http://books.google.com/books?id=2ftBJpp7aIoC&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=The

               +Los+Angeles+River:+Its+Life,+Death,+and+Possible+Rebirth&source=bl&ots=keq5

               JwrbB_&sig=YyCQ5z3bLi7h4oTouoqnC1IjYw&hl=en&ei=icXSTv76OoSisQKI0_D

               NDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAw#v=onepag

               e&q&f=false>. 

7Grease - Thunder Road. Youtube. N.p., 1978. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/ 

                watch?v=HsYC-hVEpQM>.