Stop. Please put the brakes on this $8M runaway Storm drain Infiltration proposal.
We support cleaning up the ocean, filtering out the Herondo Storm drain pollutants, letting surfers surf and babies safely swim after all storms. This, however, is simply a case of the right project at the (very) wrong place.
I am on the Board of the Cochise HOA, located adjacent to the proposed site. Imagine all of our surprise when we first read in the Easy Reader that a water filtration, storage and injection site, the size of two football fields, was going to be built a few feet away from our homes. The members of our complex knew nothing about this project. Some of us received our first notice of the first informational meeting on March 29, 2018, 2 days after the meeting took place.
After much research and some quick emails, no one can tell us why the Hermosa Greenbelt was chosen to roughly filter, store and then inject hundreds of thousands of gallons of contaminated water into our Greenbelt. The dry weather runoff and stormwater flows from Torrance (33%), Redondo (51%) and Hermosa (13%) and a bit from Manhattan Beach. Why is our little town bearing the burden of the largest Structural Watershed project to be built in the entire Beach Cities area? Initially, we weren’t even on the original list of selected and vetted sites but then we magically “won”. We don’t know why we were chosen, how we were selected, where the original vetted sites are located and who made this final decision.
Additionally, nobody bothered to notify the hundreds of homeowners surrounding this large mechanical underground water treatment facility that this was even a possibility, much less a done deal with construction to begin early next year. How were we completely left out of the loop?
Forget about the nightmare of years of construction, noise, dust, loss of use, quiet enjoyment etc.( Rumors range from 3 months to two years of construction). Don’t worry about ripping out most of the greenbelt in that area to be replaced by “natural” dune foliage, goodbye 40 foot mature trees. Property valuation drops are just money. These are all merely transitory or monetary impacts that could be endured.
However, the real and unmitigatable damage is the risk of Liquifaction, Settling buildings, bioaccumulation and outright contamination of the Greenbelt sandy soils. These are the serious, and long term damages, with potentially life threatening consequences, of this project. There are others with more experience who can scientifically illustrate these dangers. For us regular homeowners, these are our biggest and real fears and they need to be seriously and directly addressed.
There are more suitable locations for this structural project. For example, a few meters away, across Herondo St., there is an unimproved vacant lot in Redondo that has been identified as an “alternative site”. There aren’t 100s of condos already built there that will suffer liquifaction in an earthquake or sink holes or sinking foundations due to repeated injections of thousands of gallons of water. Maybe it costs a few more dollars, or Redondo has other development plans for this spot, who knows. We do know that a safer and more appropriate location can be found.
On a final note, how many meetings and hours were spent reviewing installation of a granite path on top of the greenbelt? Everyone agonized over every single detail, impact, person, policy and law. The City also authorized a well thought out legal opinion that cited the original intent of the Greenbelt was to provide “an aesthetic oasis for all the people of the City of Hermosa Beach.” Risks of liquifaction, cracked foundations, polluted grounds are the antithesis of this intent. It is not unreasonable for this Council to spend as much time and consideration on what goes under the Greenbelt as what goes on top. This is, afterall one the largest and most expensive public works projects to be built in recent years.
There is a sense of deja vu here. I feel like we are are making similar arguments to those made in the No on Oil campaign and litigation. Only this time instead of fighting McPherson and big Oil it’s the homeowners against their own City Council or some unknown Watershed Management group. I hope that this isn’t the case and a solution is found.
We urge you to slow this down and to please find answers to our questions, and solutions for these problems.
I am writing in opposition to the Greenbelt Infiltration Project at the proposed location between Herondo and 2nd Street. I believe the project increases seismic liquefaction risk, which is a public safety issue. Attached please find a letter summarizing the basis of my opposition.
Dear City Council members,
Stop. Please put the brakes on this $8M runaway Storm drain Infiltration proposal.
We support cleaning up the ocean, filtering out the Herondo Storm drain pollutants, letting surfers surf and babies safely swim after all storms. This, however, is simply a case of the right project at the (very) wrong place.
I am on the Board of the Cochise HOA, located adjacent to the proposed site. Imagine all of our surprise when we first read in the Easy Reader that a water filtration, storage and injection site, the size of two football fields, was going to be built a few feet away from our homes. The members of our complex knew nothing about this project. Some of us received our first notice of the first informational meeting on March 29, 2018, 2 days after the meeting took place.
After much research and some quick emails, no one can tell us why the Hermosa Greenbelt was chosen to roughly filter, store and then inject hundreds of thousands of gallons of contaminated water into our Greenbelt. The dry weather runoff and stormwater flows from Torrance (33%), Redondo (51%) and Hermosa (13%) and a bit from Manhattan Beach. Why is our little town bearing the burden of the largest Structural Watershed project to be built in the entire Beach Cities area? Initially, we weren’t even on the original list of selected and vetted sites but then we magically “won”. We don’t know why we were chosen, how we were selected, where the original vetted sites are located and who made this final decision.
Additionally, nobody bothered to notify the hundreds of homeowners surrounding this large mechanical underground water treatment facility that this was even a possibility, much less a done deal with construction to begin early next year. How were we completely left out of the loop?
Forget about the nightmare of years of construction, noise, dust, loss of use, quiet enjoyment etc.( Rumors range from 3 months to two years of construction). Don’t worry about ripping out most of the greenbelt in that area to be replaced by “natural” dune foliage, goodbye 40 foot mature trees. Property valuation drops are just money. These are all merely transitory or monetary impacts that could be endured.
However, the real and unmitigatable damage is the risk of Liquifaction, Settling buildings, bioaccumulation and outright contamination of the Greenbelt sandy soils. These are the serious, and long term damages, with potentially life threatening consequences, of this project. There are others with more experience who can scientifically illustrate these dangers. For us regular homeowners, these are our biggest and real fears and they need to be seriously and directly addressed.
There are more suitable locations for this structural project. For example, a few meters away, across Herondo St., there is an unimproved vacant lot in Redondo that has been identified as an “alternative site”. There aren’t 100s of condos already built there that will suffer liquifaction in an earthquake or sink holes or sinking foundations due to repeated injections of thousands of gallons of water. Maybe it costs a few more dollars, or Redondo has other development plans for this spot, who knows. We do know that a safer and more appropriate location can be found.
On a final note, how many meetings and hours were spent reviewing installation of a granite path on top of the greenbelt? Everyone agonized over every single detail, impact, person, policy and law. The City also authorized a well thought out legal opinion that cited the original intent of the Greenbelt was to provide “an aesthetic oasis for all the people of the City of Hermosa Beach.” Risks of liquifaction, cracked foundations, polluted grounds are the antithesis of this intent. It is not unreasonable for this Council to spend as much time and consideration on what goes under the Greenbelt as what goes on top. This is, afterall one the largest and most expensive public works projects to be built in recent years.
There is a sense of deja vu here. I feel like we are are making similar arguments to those made in the No on Oil campaign and litigation. Only this time instead of fighting McPherson and big Oil it’s the homeowners against their own City Council or some unknown Watershed Management group. I hope that this isn’t the case and a solution is found.
We urge you to slow this down and to please find answers to our questions, and solutions for these problems.
Regards,
Debbie Sanowski
Cochise HOA
I am writing in opposition to the Greenbelt Infiltration Project at the proposed location between Herondo and 2nd Street. I believe the project increases seismic liquefaction risk, which is a public safety issue. Attached please find a letter summarizing the basis of my opposition.