Ballona Creek
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Ballona Creek (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh” or “Buy-yo-nah” ) is an channelized stream in southwestern
Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...
,
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, that was once a “year-round river lined with sycamores and willows.” Ballona Creek and neighboring Ballona Wetlands remain a prime bird-watching spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and birds of prey. The urban watercourse begins in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, flows through Culver City and Del Rey, and passes the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve, the sailboat harbor
Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish language, Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination ...
, and the small beachside community of
Playa del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...
before draining into
Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in ...
. The Ballona Creek
drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
carries water from the
Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...
on the north, from the Baldwin Hills to the south, and as far as the
Harbor Freeway A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...
(I-110) to the east. In 1982, film critic
Richard von Busack Richard Von Busack is an American film reviewer based in San Jose, California. He has been writing for the ''Metro Silicon Valley'' since 1985. He was also the co-host of ''CinemaScene'', with poet Morton Marcus Morton Marcus (1936–2009) wa ...
, a native of Culver City, described his hometown as a “grim industrial suburb…bisected by Ballona Creek, a cement drainage ditch indistinguishable in size and content from the
Love Canal Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a landfill that became the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals harmed the health of hund ...
.”


Watershed and course

The Ballona Creek watershed totals about . Before most of Los Angeles’ watercourses were buried underground, Ballona Creek drained the whole of the west Los Angeles region and fed directly from a chain of c''iénegas'' and lakes that stretched from the
Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...
to the Baldwin Hills. The major tributaries to the Ballona Creek and
estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
include Centinela Creek channel, Sepulveda Creek channel and
Benedict Canyon Benedict Canyon is an area in the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. To the north of the Benedict Canyon neighborhood is the neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, to the west is the neighborhood of Beverly Glen, to the east are Beverly P ...
channel; most of the creek's natural minor tributaries have been destroyed by development or paved over and flow into Ballona Creek as a network of underground
storm drain A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, United States, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to Drainage, drain excess rain and ground water ...
s. Ballona Creek watershed
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
can be characterized as
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
with average annual rainfall of about . Land use in the watershed consists of 64 percent residential, 17 percent open space, eight percent commercial, and four percent industrial. The flow rate in the creek varies considerably, from a trickle flow of about per second during dry weather to per second (see
cubic meters per second A cubic metre per second (m3s−1, m3/s, cumecs or cubic meter per second in American English) is the unit of volumetric flow rate in the International System of Units (SI) equal to that of a stere or cube with sides of in length exchanged or mo ...
) during a 50-year storm event. Natural channels remain at some of the headwaters of Ballona Creek tributaries, while the lower portion of the stream is encased in concrete channels "either rectangular" in the east or "trapezoidal" toward the west; to the west of Centinela Avenue the bottom of the creek is unpaved and subject to tidal influence.


Tributaries

Major tributaries of Ballona include: * Sepulveda Creek ** Sawtelle Channel ** Sepulveda Channel *** Stone Canyon Creek * Centinela Creek * Benedict Canyon Creek ** Coldwater Canyon Creek * Adams Channel Many of these run wholly or partially underground in storm drains that empty into the creek.


Additional watershed elements

According to a report from the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...
, other contributing elements of the contemporary watershed, besides the major tributaries, are Baldwin Hills Park, Del Rey Lagoon Park,
Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve The Ballona Lagoon is a soft-bottomed channel and tidal marsh in the Marina Peninsula neighborhood of Los Angeles that feeds the Venice Canals with water from the Pacific Ocean via a tide gate. Geography Ballona Lagoon “runs for about a mi ...
, Grand Canal, the Venice Canals, Ballona Northeast (Area C—State lands), Bluff Creek and Ballona Wetlands,
Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish language, Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination ...
(including Marina Del Rey Wetland Park), Oxford Flood Control Basin, and another 15 or so minor tributaries in the Santa Monica Mountains. Ballona Wetlands and Del Rey Lagoon are connected to the Ballona estuary through tide gates. The Ballona watershed is estimated to have roughly 35 percent impervious surface, which affects rainwater infiltration and groundwater recharge. There were at least 41 natural springs mapped in the ''Río de La Ballona'' watershed before development. A waterway called Walnut Creek once arose near what is now the L.A. Coliseum at
Exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair * Expository writing ** Exposition (narrative) * Exposition (music) *Trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...
but it was destroyed by the 1930s flood-control engineering. A 2011 study determined that as little as two percent of Ballona’s water may now come from underground springs, meaning that 98 percent of the creek's flow consists of various forms of runoff throughout the watershed.


Crossings

From northern source to southern mouth (year built in parentheses): * Begins at South Cochran Avenue * South Burnside Avenue (1974) * Hauser Boulevard (1974) * Thurman Avenue (1974) * South
Fairfax Avenue Fairfax Avenue is a street in the north central area of the city of Los Angeles, California. It runs from La Cienega Boulevard in Culver City at its southern end to Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood on its northern end. From La Cienega Boulevard ( ...
(1962) *
Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...
(1964) *
La Cienega Boulevard La Cienega Boulevard is a major north–south arterial road that runs between El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne, California on the south and the Sunset Strip/ Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood to the north. It was named for Rancho Las Cienega ...
(1937) * Washington Boulevard (1938) * National Boulevard north (1967), Bike Path Bridge for
Expo Line Bikeway The Expo Line Bikeway is a Los Angeles County, California rail with trail bicycle path and pedestrian route that travels roughly parallel to the Metro’s E Line train tracks between the Exposition Park area near the USC campus and downtown ...
since 2009 *
Metro E Line The Metro E Line is a planned bus rapid transit route in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Edina. The route will operate from Southdale Center Transit Center in Edina, Minnesota to Westgate station in St. Paul. Running mostly on France Avenue, Hennepi ...
(2012) originally Santa Monica Air Line streetcar (1909) * National Boulevard south (1967, replaced 2009) * Higuera Street (1938, to be replaced 2022) * Duquesne Avenue (1938) * Overland Avenue (1928) * Ballona Creek Pedestrian Bridge (1951, replaced 2004) *
Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...
(1985) *
Sawtelle Boulevard Sawtelle Boulevard is a north/south street in the Westside region of the city of Los Angeles, California. For most of its length, it parallels the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405), one block to the east. The street has important Japanese Ame ...
(1988) * Interstate 405 - San Diego Freeway (1960) * Inglewood Boulevard (1937) *
Centinela Avenue Centinela Avenue is a 10.2 mile major street in the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Geography Centinela Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Culver City, Inglewood, Ladera Heights, Mar Vista, Santa Monica, and West Los Angeles. ...
(1938) * State Route 90 - Marina Freeway (1972) * Venice–Inglewood streetcar and freight route (crossing removed after 1980, pylons remain circa 2022) * Lincoln Boulevard/ State Route 1 (1937) * Culver Boulevard (1937) * Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey Line streetcar (built circa 1903, demolished sometime after 1940) * Pacific Avenue Bridge (1928) - Now used only by pedestrians and bicycles as part of the Los Angeles Coastal Bike Trail, Pacific Avenue was once a car road continuous from Venice to Playa Del Rey but the construction of the Marina “severed the north-south connection.” Several of these crossings existed as “small wooden bridges” of unknown age before they were replaced in the 1930s by
WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...
infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
projects. An “old wooden bridge” was in place on Overland before 1928. A 1900 railway map appears to show Ballona Creek crossings at Inglewood, Higuera, and La Cienega and a crossing between Alla and
Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
stations .


Ecology and conservation


Pollution

The
urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
of the watershed, and associated with it the pollution of
urban runoff Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater, landscape irrigation, and car washing created by urbanization. Impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots and sidewalks) are constructed during land development. During rain , storms and other precip ...
and
stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...
, has degraded the water quality in Ballona Creek and its
estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
. Ballona Creek is listed by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board impaired for
fecal coliform A fecal coliform (British: faecal coliform) is a facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium. Coliform bacteria generally originate in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. Fecal coliforms are capable of growth ...
, heavy metals, and pesticides. "Since Ballona drains
bout Bout can mean: People *Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer *Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland *Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrumen ...
126 square miles of surface area and thousands of street gutters, freeway runoffs, and industrial overflows, its highly toxic waters constitute the most serious source of pollution for Santa Monica Bay. A new city sewer line in the 1980s alleviated some, but not all, of the problem." Dry weather urban runoff and storm water, both conveyed by
storm drain A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, United States, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to Drainage, drain excess rain and ground water ...
s, are the primary sources of
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
in the riverine coastal estuary. Another observer described the general state of the creek in 2021: The litter flows into the creek require constant cleanup by the County Department of Public Works and volunteer teams organized by Ballona Creek Renaissance, et al. Just for example, 50 bags of litter, including diapers, syringes and a car bumper, were removed from Ballona Creek on Coastal Cleanup Day in 1988. Two abandoned live kittens and of less-precious dumped garbage were removed in 2002. Nets and booms strung across the end of the creek attempt to catch as much litter as possible before it enters
Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in ...
.


The Ocean Cleanup

To help reduce the flow of litter into the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
,
The Ocean Cleanup The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit environmental engineering organization based in the Netherlands, that develops technology to extract plastic pollution from the oceans and intercept it in rivers before it can reach the ocean. After initial t ...
organization deployed an Interceptor Original, one of their solar-powered, automated systems, near the mouth of the creek in October 2022. This is the first Interceptor Original installed in the United States, and the second of the third-generation Interceptor Original to be deployed globally. Until the system was put into place, it was docked with the
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
in
Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
.


Habitat

The creek and wetlands are recognized as an “Important Birding Area” by the
Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...
. As far as the creek specifically, the best birding opportunities are usually west of Lincoln Boulevard.
Urban coyote Urban coyotes are coyotes that reside in North American metropolitan areas (major cities and their suburbs). Coyotes thrive in suburban settings and urban regions, because of the availability of food and the lack of predators. One report descri ...
s and a small population of venomous
southern Pacific rattlesnake ''Crotalus helleri'', known as the Southern Pacific rattlesnake, black diamond rattlesnake,Albert Hazen WWright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a div ...
s live alongside the creek; exercise due caution to protect both the wildlife and visiting humans. According to a 2003 assessment, "Less than one percent of the plant cover observed along the Ballona Creek could be classified as native species."
Bottlenose dolphins Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the comm ...
,
harbor seals The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...
and
California sea lions The California sea lion (''Zalophus californianus'') is a coastal eared seal native to western North America. It is one of six species of sea lions. Its natural habitat ranges from southeast Alaska to central Mexico, including the Gulf of Cali ...
are occasionally spotted downstream. In 1953, a sea lion made it upstream before it got bogged down; the lost pinniped was lassoed by rescuers and returned to the Pacific.


History

An alternative historic Spanish-language place name for the creek reported in the
GNIS The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...
is ''Sanjón de Agua con Alisos'', which roughly translates to “water ditch with sycamores.” (''Aliso'' is the North American Spanish language word for ''
Platanus racemosa ''Platanus racemosa'' is a species of plane tree known by several common names, including California sycamore, western sycamore, California plane tree, and in North American Spanish aliso. ''Platanus racemosa'' is native to California and Baja ...
'', or Western sycamore, a landmark water-loving, river-bank tree species native to the area. Watercourses or irrigation channels called zanja, ''zanjón'' or sanjon are noted throughout
southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
and the American Southwest generally.) A reported
Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...
-language ( Takic subgroup of Uto-Aztecan) placename for the Ballona estuary and wetlands was ''Pwinukipar'', meaning “it is filled with water.” Originally, Ballona Creek was a picturesque natural waterway fed by runoff. The creek collected the water from ciénegas and the rains. Its banks were lined with sycamores, willows, tules, and other trees. This natural bounty attracted the earliest known human inhabitants of the region, the Gabrieliño-
Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...
Indians, the indigenous people of the Los Angeles region. For at least 3,000 years, the
pre-Contact In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
Tongva lived in the area encompassing the Ballona Creek floodplain and the Westchester Bluffs. These indigenous peoples left a large burial ground near the region along the southwest corner of the Ballona Wetlands. The records of the San Gabriel Mission record recruitment of Tongva from a group of settlements named Washna (also referred to in some historical and scholarly sources as Saa’angna) near the mouth of Ballona Creek. Before the Spanish conquest, Washna was probably the most important Native American center for trade between the mainland and Catalina Island. The Spanish
Portolá expedition thumbnail, 250px, Point of San Francisco Bay Discovery The Portolá expedition ( es, Expedición de Portolá) was a Spanish voyage of exploration in 1769–1770 that was the first recorded European land entry and exploration of the interior of ...
camped at the headwaters of Ballona on August 3, 1769. At the time of Spanish settlement, Ballona Creek was a
distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...
of the
Los Angeles River , name_etymology = , image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg , image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge , image_size = 300 , map = LARmap.jpg , map_size ...
. However, the flood of 1825 changed the course of the Los Angeles River, and Ballona Creek became a distinct waterway. Around 1820, a ''mestizo'' rancher named Augustine Machado claimed a
Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...
that stretched from modern-day Culver City to
Pico Boulevard Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribeir ...
in Santa Monica, California. Ballona Creek and Lagoon are named for the Ballona or ''Paseo de las Carretas'' (“wagon pass”) land grant, dated November 27, 1839. The Machado and Talamantes families, co-grantees of the rancho, heralded from Baiona in northern Spain. In the 1840s, Francisco Higuera’s adobe “was close enough to La Ballona Creek for Francisco’s nine children to swim in the clear waters of the stream with its fine sandy bottom.” On the Fourth of July 1862, soldiers from
Camp Latham Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
and their guests “visited the Willows, a beautiful grove on the
right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...
of Ballona Creek, for a promenade to enchanting music.” In 1886, a California state report described Ballona and Centinela creeks: :Out from the central springs of the upper belt—on ranchos La Brea and Rodeo de las Aguas—Ballona gathers its upper perennial waters, leads them south against the base of the Centinela hills. Here, reinforced by a little stream from the east, draining the springs of the ranchos La Cienega and Paso de la Tejera, it turns west and southwest, parallel with the hill’s footing, into the Ballona flats and the sea five to six miles away.Hall, W. H. (1886)
Report of the State Engineer of California: On Irrigation and the Irrigation Question.
United States: J. D. Young tc.Superintendent state printing.
Circa 1890, the renowned Machado ranch stables were located "a few hundred feet across the Ballona bridge on Overland Avenue." A 1912 advertisement for homes in the “Washington Park subdivision” along the creek said, “Ballona Creek is a swift-running little stream, fed by springs, and carrying plenty of water all the year. It divides in Washington Park, making a picturesque little island.” In addition to other festivities organized by real-estate brokers to drum sales in the new development, “A free luncheon with hot coffee was served on Ballona Island, the wooded island in Ballona Creek.” Ultimately, the ranch land along the creek was put into agricultural use alongside new small towns such as
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
(est. 1905) and Culver City (est. 1917). In 1928, one writer observed, “Gradually Rancho La Ballona began to develop and people began to build. The ranches were subdivided until Rancho la Ballona became a rich valley of beautiful homes with people coming from every State until it reaches the portions of today.” Photos of a flooded Jefferson Boulevard appeared in the newspaper after a major storm in December 1931; authorities told reporters that Ballona Creek’s peak flow “more than 7000 second feet” went through the channel. Deadly floods in 1934 led officials to temporarily close “small wooden bridges spanning Ballona Creek” to limit potential danger to civilians. The crossings were at Burnside Avenue, Redondo Boulevard, Thurman Avenue and Venice Boulevard.“Torrential Rains Leave Seven Dead; $150,000 Damage: One Missing and Girl Fights for Life; Hundreds Abandon Homes and New Arroyo Floods Feared,” ''Los Angeles Times'', 1934-10-19, p. 1. Much of the above-ground section of the creek was lined with concrete as part of the flood-control project undertaken by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
between 1935 and 1939. :In 1931, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District had proposed permanent improvement of the Ballona Channel and included it in its county-wide flood control program. ¶ Subsequently, under the direction of Engineer C.H. Howell, a plan for La Ballona’s improvement was submitted to the federal government. ¶ Major Theodore Wyman Jr. sent his hundreds of workers to straighten and widen the crooked channel that since prehistoric times had been unable to hold the flood waters of rainy seasons that created lagoons and created vast swamp areas. ¶ They not only straightened, widened and deepened the meandering river, they put it in slope-sided, rock-lined strait-jacket. Also they built three bridges, with the aid of a federal grant of $800,000. ¶ The result has been increased flood protection to a wide area and the reclaiming of swamp land. In addition there has been created an estuary, formed by the flow of ocean tides, extending two miles inland from the channel mouth. Two laborers, Tony Rizzo, a 44-year-old father of six, and Barney Porres, 24, were killed by a mudslide in the channel in 1937. Two other men were injured. A coroner’s jury found that “lack of proper precautions” by flood-control management team were to blame. A contract was awarded in 1946 to extend the stone jetties an additional “to deflect ocean currents to prevent beach erosion.” The tributaries were channelized in the 1950s. Centinela Creek’s course was set in parallel to the route of Interstate 405 and the then-forthcoming
Marina Freeway A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...
. The channelization of the creek is part of the larger human reorganization of
southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
, “some of the oldest and most extensive water redistribution projects in the United States.” When the Baldwin Hills Dam broke 1963, the Ballona Creek Channel carried the flood of water and debris safely to the sea.


Recreation

The Ballona Creek Bike Path, which extends almost from National Boulevard in Culver City to Marina Del Rey, is a popular fitness track. More than 30 species of fish are present in the Ballona Del Rey harbor and Ballona estuary. The Ballona Wetlands Land Trust offers a free, full-color, online booklet “A Guide to Fish Found in the Lower Ballona Creek and the Ballona Wetlands.” The Los Angeles Department of Beaches and Harbors permits licensed fishing at the north and south jetties; licenses can be purchased at nearby shops (
West Marine West Marine is an American company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which operates a chain of boating supply and fishing retail stores. The company has 247 retail stores in North America. West Marine also runs Blue Future a non profit organ ...
, Marina Del Rey Sportfishing or Del Rey Landing). The Ballona Creek jetty is “a good spot for
kelp bass ''Paralabrax clathratus'', the kelp bass, bull bass or calico bass, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a sea bass from the subfamily Serraninae, classified as part of the family Serranidae which includes the groupers and anthias. It is foun ...
, sand bass, and
mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...
.” In 1950, an upstream reservoir was being drained by Los Angeles, and “Bass and
blue gill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...
, stocked in the reservoir, ran down storm drains and into Ballona Creek.” The Culver City Chamber of Commerce and
Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting p ...
Rod & Gun Club erected a temporary dam to trap the fish and threw a fishing contest for local kids. (No adults allowed.)


In popular culture

The Little Rascals of
Hal Roach Harry Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr.Randy Skretvedt, Skretvedt, Randy (2016), ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'', Bonaventure Press. p.608. (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer, director, a ...
’s '' Our Gang'' used Ballona Creek as a filming location for
shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...
like “
Fish Hooky ''Fish Hooky'' is a 1933 ''Our Gang'' short subject, short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 120th (32nd talking episode) ''Our Gang'' short that was released. Plot Wheezer, Dickie, Uh-huh, and Stymie choose to play hooky fro ...
” (1933). In the 1997 movie ''
Volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
'', Mike Roark (
Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film '' The ...
) destroys a 20-story apartment building in a controlled demolition in order to divert a flowing river of lava into Ballona Creek and thus into the Pacific Ocean.


Gallery


See also

* San Gabriel River * Santa Ana River *
Los Angeles River , name_etymology = , image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg , image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge , image_size = 300 , map = LARmap.jpg , map_size ...
* Tongva Sacred Springs *
Centinela Springs The Aguaje de Centinela, or Centinela Springs, was a valued source of local spring water for Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela and what is now southwest Los Angeles and Inglewood in Southern California. Monuments California Historical Landmark marker ...
*
Brookside, Los Angeles Brookside is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is an enclave of eight tree-lined streets and 400 homes. The neighborhood consists primarily of one-story and two-story, predominantly single-family residences in various Period Revival st ...
neighborhood * America’s National Wild and Scenic Rivers designation (Ballona Creek does not qualify at this time)


References


External links


BALLONA CREEK HYDROLOGY
(Search “Ballona Creek” for map of channels, underground storm drains and natural tributaries)
BALLONA CREEK INFRASTRUCTURE
(Survey done by Ballona Wetlands Land Trust; check all the boxes-reaches 1 thru 4-and then zoom in to view features)
Ballona Creek and Other Urban Watersheds
- excellent clear PDF format WATERSHED MAP by LA County Public Works
Friends of Ballona Wetlands

Ballona Creek Renaissance
*
”Birds of Ballona Creek”
- 6 min YouTube video *
“A ride along the creek”
- 2 min YouTube video
Ballona Creek Watershed Management Plan of Los Angeles County
(224-pg report, illustrated)
Ballona Creek Revitalization Project
- Culver City, includes 20 years of official reports about creek
Historic Ecology of the Ballona Creek Watershed
(81-pg report, illustrated)


Always Bring Binoculars - Guide to Birding Ballona Creek (4-part guide)
*
#1 Birding Ballona Creek: Jetties and Breakwater
*
#2 Birding Lower Ballona Creek: Pacific Avenue to Lincoln Boulevard
*
#3 Birding Ballona Creek: Lincoln to Inglewood Blvd.
*
#4 Birding Ballona Creek: East End, Syd Kronenthal Park to Inglewood Blvd.

Ballona Wetlands and Creek photo gallery - Citizen of the Planet

“Ballona Creek rages through Culver City” video from 2019 storm

undercity.org Ballona Creek Watershed Drains

LMU Center for Urban Resilience: Urban EcoLab Curriculum Material
*
Top 25 Common Los Angeles Birds
{{Authority control Geography of Los Angeles Baldwin Hills (mountain range) Mid-City, Los Angeles Culver City, California Del Rey, Los Angeles Playa Vista, Los Angeles Playa del Rey, Los Angeles Marina del Rey, California Westside (Los Angeles County) Ballona Creek