Arcadia Residents Attempt to Halt the Bulldozers at Board of Supervisors This Morning

HALT THE BULLDOZERS, PROTECT THE ARCADIA WOODLANDS

“Halt those bulldozers and switch off those chain saws” was the message delivered by a wide-spread coalition of Arcadia neighbors and environmentalists massing in front of the Board of Supervisor’s at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 11th at 500 West Temple in Los Angeles. They were there to protest the Los Angeles County Public Works (LACPW) proposal to turn a pristine 13-acre oak woodland in Arcadia into a dump for mud and debris removed from nearby local dams.

Last month, in response to extensive public protest, County Supervisor Michael Antonovich called for a 30-day moratorium on implementing the County’s plan. The moratorium expired in early January and LACPW is expected to report back to the Supervisors on January 11th or a subsequent meeting.

The original LACPW 2007 plan obtained a certified EIR (Environmental Impact Report) that the community maintains is deeply flawed and misleading. The EIR did not tell the City of Arcadia nor its residents that the County would be using this site for the disposal of sediment from other neighboring dams. In fact, residents were told that to avoid trucks going through their neighborhoods and past a nearby school, they should support the plan for an on-site disposal. Already an estimated 25,000 cubic years of sediment have been trucked in from the Sierra Madre Dam and many times that amount from as far away as La Crescenta. It is the use of this site for future sediment deliveries via dump truck from other dams, something never mentioned in the original EIR, that is the real reason that LADPW wants to mow down of the oak woodland.

Arcadia woodland (2)

To confirm their contention that the Arcadia Sediment Disposal site can already accommodate all the estimated 500,000 cubic yards of mud from Santa Anita Dam, environmentalist hired a highly respected independent soil’s engineer who had just completed a soil’s study in an adjacent neighborhood. His findings confirm that there is no need for the extra space that the County claims necessitates the destruction of the Arcadia Oak Woodland. No delays in starting the project need to be incurred. There is enough space now without the removal of the oak woodland and the County can move ahead with its contract for sediment removal from Santa Anita Dam as proposed in the 2007 EIR. In its own just-released written report to the Board of Supervisors, LACPW confirms the validity of the independent engineering study.

Although County Public Works has refused several offers to meet with leaders of the Arcadia Woodland preservation movement and has evaded repeated requests for a “date certain” on when their report would be brought before the Board of Supervisors (BOS), organizers are “covering their bases” by appearing on Tuesday, January 11th. “This is a pristine natural woodland that is home to wildlife and some180 old-growth oaks and 70 beautiful sycamores.” says Cameron Stone of ArcadiaWoodlands.org. “We are here to share our love for this place with the Board of Supervisors and show them how they can continue with the important task of sediment removal as outlined in the EIR without destroying the woodland. The Arcadia Woodland is a community treasure that must be protected and respected.”

For further information, please go to Arcadiawoodland.org or (list all information sources)
or http://www.youtube.com/watch and key word Santa Anita Wash.

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