North East Trees in co-ordination with the City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Sanitation is working on the design and construction of this innovative project that will have the capacity to capture and clean more than one million gallons of rain and rainwater runoff.
Project Budget: $3.1 million
Project Description: A large storm drain passes under Garvanza Park (located at 6240 E. Meridian Street, Los Angles, CA 90042) that carries all the water draining from the hilly neighborhood above it directly to the Arroyo Seco. Typically, this urban rainwater runoff carrying oil and other pollutants from the streets travels to the Los Angeles River and finally empties into the ocean.
This “Best Management Practices” project (BMP) will capture rain water and divert the polluted rainwater runoff into two large cisterns that will be installed under the park. Water will be cleaned and filtered utilizing natural infiltration processes. Water collected in one chamber will be allowed to soak into the soil replenishing the groundwater. The other chamber will store water that will be used to irrigate the park during the dry months.
Schematic for Garvanza Park BMP
Ultimately, this project will help save water, as well as keep the Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles River and the ocean healthy and clean.
Project Update: The design phase is complete, and construction started on November 8, 2010. The construction site has been fenced in and safely secured while leaving the skate park, playground equipment and baseball field still accessible to the community. Park trees have been protected from construction activities with fencing and a cushion of mulch around them.
Fenced off construction site
There are various stages of construction that the park will go through; from shoring and excavation to irrigation installation and landscaping.
Currently the project is in the shoring stage. Large holes have been bored into the ground around the perimeter of where the basins will be installed, beams over 30 feet long are anchored in the holes, the earth has been excavated from this area and large steel plates have been attached to the beams to create walls around the excavated area. This creates space for the basins. The basins will be buried under the park at a depth of 18 feet.
Shoring stage of construction
Construction at Garvanza Park
Construction is scheduled to continue through summer of 2011. NET will be providing updates and ongoing photo documentation to the activities on site. Be sure to check back on our progress.
Funding for this project has been provided by state and local funds.
North East Trees 