HW Sports Campus : Water Reclamation

 

This is the tenth in our ongoing weekly series of News & Notes that explores key parts of the Harvard Westlake Sports Campus Application at the Weddington Golf & Tennis location.

 

 

It is well known that the area around Weddington Golf and Tennis floods during heavy rains. The rain water drains to the River along with what is called “dry runoff”. 

 

Harvard-Westlake has stated the following in its Application to the Planning Department:

*   “Even in dry conditions, lawn and garden sprinklers, hoses, car washing and other common residential uses result in water being directed along the same path into the LA River, bringing with it motor oil, coolant, trash, sediment, metals, and a host of other pollutants.”

 

A large storm water recapture project is being planned by the LADWP Stormwater Capture Parks Program for East Valley parks. The Program will remove grass playing fields and replace the fields with grass, not artificial turf, as Harvard-Westlake is proposing to do.

 

Save LA River Open Space created proposals (backed by technical studies) that would have put in place systems to clean dry run off in addition to rain water at Weddington. The plan was to capture 200 acres of dry runoff, filter and clean through the Weddington site to discharge the cleaned water directly into the Los Angeles River. The studies were reviewed and approved by the Department of Sanitation.

 

The Harvard-Westlake recapture proposal reduces the catchment area of polluted runoff from 200 acres to 39 acres. The Valley Village Park, one of the smallest parks in of the Stormwater project, will capture 455 acres.

 

* “If capacity in the underground cisterns is reached, waste water that flows from the residential neighborhood to the north of the Property will continue to be collected, cleaned and filtered before being discharged back onto Whitsett Avenue”

 

What is missing from this statement from Harvard-Westlake is the fact that the excess runoff will flow onto Whitsett to comingle with other untreated run off before it enters the River. SLAROS’ Water reclamation plan would send clean water directly to the river, not dump it back onto Whitsett to pick up toxins on the street as it flows past the fire station and into the River.

 

We welcome your comments and encourage you to forward this email to your friends and neighbors. If you have any questions, please email us at SaveOpenSpace2020@gmail.com and we will respond to you.

 

* The above is based on the initial Application filed with the Department of City Planning by Harvard Westlake. We will keep you updated as the process moves forward.

 

If you have missed any of these weekly emails, you can find our series of emails on our website, www.StudioCityResidents.org.

 

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Volunteers Welcomed!

 

The Harvard Westlake Sports Campus has the potential of disrupting the residential area around it and impacting already notorious traffic patterns. Save LA River and the Studio City Residents Association are seeking the best result possible and, we are looking for volunteers for specific areas:

 For information and updates visit www.savelariveropenspace.org

 

Next week: COMMUNITY ACCESSIBILITY