Two Videos featuring Andy Lipkis

Here are a couple of videos that creek freaks will enjoy; both feature Andy Lipkis the founder and soul of TreePeople. Above, Lipkis explains the Elmer Avenue green street. Below, Majora Carter‘s (who has lots of creek freak cred from her work on waterfront restoration on the Bronx River) new Ted.com talk tells three environmental entrepeneurship tales, including Lipkis’ work to green L.A. schools.

How to figure out a fifty-year storm (and other storms too)

Blue lines indicate 50-year rainfall predictions for Los Angeles over a 24-hr period. See below for how to use this map. Source: Los Angeles County Hydrology Manual Appendix B

Visiting Watershed Parks in the Rain

Our concrete rivers and creeks are dangerous during heavy rains; don’t take our word for it, watch No Way Out! What’s fun to visit in the rain are the adjacent rainwater harvesting sites: watershed management parks and green steets. L.A. Creek Freak didn’t quite get to Elmer Avenue in Sun Valley, Bicknell Avenue in Santa Monica, or those city of Downey swales… if anyone has reports on any of those sites, please post comments!

Over the past couple rainy days Creek Freak did pay visits to Marsh Park, Riverdale Avenue and the Bimini Slough Ecology Park. Reports below!

What’s Up with this “Dry” La Niña Year?

This year, it’s La Niña – a climate condition opposite from El Niño. I confess that I am not a climate expert and I don’t entirely understand exactly how hot and cold cycles in the Pacific Ocean actually interact with Southern California weather… but, generally, the basic equation is that El Niño brings wetter winters and La Niña brings drier ones. Various sources have been predicting a relatively dry winter. For example, this KPBS story Researchers Say Strong La Niña Means Dry Winter For California states:  ”Researchers say a strong La Niña means below normal rainfall for Southern California…”

Los Angeles has experienced four consecutive days of healthy rainstorms, and a doozy predicted tomorrow. This afternoon’s L.A. Times article Strongest storm yet could bring flooding, tornadoes, hail and high winds to L.A. area predicts “thunderstorms, hail, and even waterspouts and tornadoes along the Southern California coast early Wednesday.” Could this possibly be consistent with La Niña? Well… maybe.

Geeking out on gages in the rain

Curious about the rain? Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has a fun online site for monitoring rainfall.

Screen shot of County's Precipitation map. Click image to get to live updates.

You can also go to the USGS website to view real-time stream gage data. Here’s a couple of examples:

Malibu Creek stream gage. Note high so far is about 3000 CFS.

 

Los Angeles River at Sepulveda Basin. High flow so far - +/- 8000 CFS (cubic feet/second).

Neither of these highs strike me as particularly high flows, despite all the storm-of-the-decade hyperbole. But it is interesting and useful to monitor the changes.  If you are seriously geeking out on this stuff and have a mac computer, you can also download stream gage widgets here.

A Los Angeles River Christmas Story – 1889

William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, by Catherine Mulholland, UC Press, 2000

I’ve been enjoying reading Catherine Mulholland’s William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, published by the University of California Press in 2000. It’s a biography of Catherine’s grandfather William Mulholland (1855-1935) who was the engineer responsible for much of Los Angeles’ early water supply engineering and vision, including our securing of water from the Owen’s Valley.

Here’s a Los Angeles River Christmas story from 121 years ago. L.A.’s creek freaks will know to expect some flooding in century-old Los Angeles River winter tales.

From William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, starting on page 49:

[I]n 1890… [William Mulholland] received a gold watch from a grateful water company [the private Los Angeles Water Company that later became the city of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power] for services beyond the call of duty when he had braved the torrential rains of Christmas Week, 1889-1890, to save the city’s water supply.

Low Impact Development Passes L.A. City Council

The new LID ordinance will make permeable pavement sidewalks more common

At its final meeting of the year, yesterday, Friday December 17th 2010, the Los Angeles City Council passed “LID”  Low Impact Development. You can read some earlier background at Creek Freak and elsewhere, but basically it means that, in the city of Los Angeles, new development (and substantial redevelopment) will need will need to be more sustainable in regards to rainwater. Buildings, landscapes, parking lots, etc. will need to slow, detain and store and/or infiltrate water on-site, instead of speeding it into storm drains, creeks, rivers, and the sea.

This took a while. L.A. Creek Freak started reporting on the city of L.A. efforts in September 2009, attended a workshop in October 2009, and reported on the Public Works Board passing LID  in January 2010. Plenty more excellent coverage is available at Heal the Bay’s Mark Gold’s Spouting Off.

No Way Out Video: Scary Concrete Rivers

It’s the wet season, so I figure it’s a good time to share the video No Way Out. Part 1 is above; part 2 is after the jump. The video was created in 1993, largely in response to the February 12th 1992 drowning death of a San Fernando Valley 15-year-old named Adam Bischoff. Bischoff, pictured below, is one of dozens of youth who’ve lost their lives in Los Angeles’ concreted waterways.

Johnston Lake history @ LA Eastside

I enjoyed chimatli’s historical account on Johnston/Mirror Lake at LA Eastside. She brings the people who were connected to the place to life and gives us a sense of what the lake has meant to people over the decades. Check it out! Great photos too. Creekfreak’s more cursory history of San Rafael Creek can be found here.

Recent News – 15 December 2010

Los Angeles River at Bette Davis Picnic Area - painting by Akiko Crawford - click for larger image at her portfolio blog

Recent news that might be of interest to L.A.’s Creek Freaks: