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2023 Advice to Ballona Proponents and Adversaries:
"One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts." - C.S. Lewis
Since the 1990’s Playa Vista, Friends of Ballona and later California Fish and Wildlife have told a tale. Opponents of their tale have tried to correct it. Luckily, nature rules and over time is proving adversaries correct. Patterns and Practices Loom Large.
Viewer, if you prefer, you can watch each YouTube Individually Below:
Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB) Meeting 4.27.23 Public Comments. 4 Speakers. 39 minutes 51 sec.
Topic 1: Dr. Margot Griswold, Los Angeles Audubon Society, Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. Drainage of Freshwater, 53% - 67% of surface runoff from east of Lincoln to Area B is cutoff and sent to the Ballona Creek / County Flood Control Channel.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has no Land Management Plan (LMP).
Topic 2: Patricia McPherson, Grassroots Coalition. Director Naha, I think you have concerns about this also. Sequence 1 & 2 through the Department of Fish and Wildlife is a private plan for Playa Vista. It is a drainage plan on the public dime; what Dr. Griswold just showed you. All this goes back to the 1990s...
Our Santa Monica Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan (SGMA) has no Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem (GDE) for Ballona. We need to know what we are losing.
Topic 3: Kathy Knight, Ballona Ecosystem Education Project. Volunteering 30 plus years. We should not open up the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve to Ocean Water and Do Massive Bulldozing like the Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to do. It is a rare, mostly Freshwater Wetland on our coast and the only one in Los Angeles. Bringing in Saltwater will destroy the pickle weed that the endangered savanna sparrow depends on and will destroy two freshwater drinking aquifers under Ballona. We need a Ballona hydrology study.
Topic 4: Walter Lamb, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust. What analysis has CDFW done at Ballona? Sea Level Rise in the 2030’s is coming up quickly. There is a reason the four organizations represented by our speakers today are self-funding, give freely of their time and constantly challenge the “so called experts” who accept repetitive grants, living off tax payers’ hard earned tax dollars.
California Coastal Commission (CCC) Meeting 4.12.23 Public Comment by Walter Lamb, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust 4 minutes 28 seconds. Topic: Unpermitted Fence Installed by CDFW at Ballona in 2023 observed by Walter. An after the Fact Permit was issued by California Coastal Commission and discovered with a Public Information Act Request by the Land Trust.
California Coastal Commission (CCC) Meeting 4.14.23 Public Comment by Patricia McPherson, Grassroots Coalition 8 minutes 52 seconds. Topic: Request for CCC Enforcement staff and Planning Staff to discuss Ballona Sequence 1 and 2 and Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and Ballona’s Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDE). Also, WHAT DO WE DO WHEN RELEVANT NEW INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE? LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM SE FARRALON ISLANDS near San Francisco in a DISCUSSION AMONG THE COASTAL COMMISSIONERS and Cassidy Teufel and Dr. Hucklebridge (Reopener clause).
California Coastal Commission (CCC) Meeting 4.12.23 Public Comment by Walter Lamb, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust 4 minutes 28 seconds. Topic: Unpermitted Fence Installed by CDFW at Ballona in 2023 observed by Walter. An after the Fact Permit was issued by California Coastal Commission and discovered with a Public Information Act Request by the Land Trust.
Flyover of Ballona Watershed 2 minutes. Get an orientation from the satellite view, where the Ballona Wetlands are in Los Angeles.
This Youtube video below is an optional opportunity to meet the LA Water Quality Control Board's new Executive Officer, Susana Arrendondo, the Vice Chair and Board Members. They are extremely important to an excellent outcome for Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve adjacent to Marina del Rey - 22 minutes.
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