11:45am | This past Monday, it was announced at the City Hall in Bellflower, that the Lower Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC) Board of Governors unanimously voted to approve an application from the Friends of Colorado Lagoon (FOCL) for a $500,000 competitive grant.
The awarded funding comes from The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006 — otherwise known as Proposition 84 — which authorized around $5.4 billion in general obligation bonds to fund many environmental efforts ranging from safe drinking water programs to state and local park improvements. The award FOCL received — the first major funding the group autonomously brought to the City itself — will be used to support a community-based effort to re-vegetate the intertidal and upland habitat of the Colorado Lagoon’s Western Arm, as well as the installation of public trails and interpretive signage.
What was once a beaming jewel of the city, it was home to the 1932 U.S. Olympic trials, where its transformation for the trials disconnected it from Alamitos Bay via the creation of Colorado Street and subsequent bridge over the tidal connection. In the 1960s, an underground culvert was created but prevented full tide drainage and following the many storm drains which dump into the lagoon, led to its pollution. The Colorado Lagoon has been listed as one of the state’s most polluted water bodies, with elevated levels of harmful chemicals and bacteria. In coordination with the City of Long Beach, the community-based restoration of the Colorado Lagoon has been on-going since 2008. This new project will begin after the City of Long Beach’s dredging project, the second part of a major three-step restoration phase, which is expected to be completed by August of this year.
This recent award adds to FOCL’s history of receiving competitive grant funds for community-based habitat restoration of the Colorado Lagoon. In 2008, FOCL was awarded $29,800 from the Southern California Wetland Recovery Project and $73,400 from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Program to restore the Lagoon’s eastern shoreline.
FOCL, created in 1999 in response to a County proposal to increase drain flow into the lagoon, works with many community partners and local schools to raise awareness and provide education for our valuable coastal habitats while offering opportunities for the general public to help restore Colorado Lagoon. Involvement from local citizens will make FOCL’s efforts most successful. Those interested in participating in this project should contact FOCL’s education program.