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July 2010 - U.S. EPA Declares the L.A. River 'Traditional Navigable Waters'

By Elson Trinidad
August 6, 2014
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Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River, taken from its eastern bank, adjacent to North Atwater Park. | Photo: Elson Trinidad

The Los Angeles River, dismissed by some as a "sewer," and once envisioned to host a freeway, reached a watershed moment on July 8, 2010 as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared that the river fall under the "Traditional Navigable Waters" classification in the Clean Water Act, an action that would increase the momentum for restoration, protection, and public appreciation of the 52-mile waterway.

For centuries, the river -- a typical Southwestern seasonal alluvial river -- ran its course, through various iterations, across the L.A. basin. The Spanish-era pobladores who founded Los Angeles in 1781 specifically chose their settlement due to its proximity to the river, which was the primary source of water for the eventual city until the L.A. Aqueduct was built in 1913. Because of devastating floods, the river was mostly channelized in concrete by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beginning in 1930 (The two non-channelized sections, in the Sepulveda Basin and the Glendale Narrows, were unpaved due to the location of the water table, allowing the riparian ecosystems to remain there). In 1986, the Friends of the Los Angeles River was formed to organize river cleanups, and advocate for environmental care for the waterway.

Though the river is known to transport mountain snowmelt and stormwater runoff into the sea during rainy seasons, the waterway is re-charged with 23 million gallons of purified wastewater produced daily by the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys.

Since the EPA's re-classification of the L.A. River, the City of Los Angeles, in the summer of 2013, opened 2.5 miles of the river in the Glendale Narrows section for unrestricted recreational use - the first time since the 1930s. Later that year, the L.A. River Revitalization Corporation, with the help of public officials, environmental groups, businesses, and residents, spearheaded a campaign advocating for the selection of a $1 billion proposal to revitalize the river from the Verdugo Wash to downtown L.A., known as "Alternative 20." In June of 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the Alternative 20 plan.

KCET's "Departures" has been tracking the cultural and environmental progress of the current efforts to revitalize Los Angeles River.

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