NewsCastle
Los Angeles District
Vol. 43 No. 12
A monthly publication of the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
December 2013
EPA Chief visits LA River
Corps officials brief EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy (left) on Los Angeles County Drainage Area projects during her visit to a Los Angeles River
overlook point in Elysian Park Nov. 21. The newly appointed EPA chief visited Los Angeles to get a first-hand view of LA River revitalization efforts.
(Photo by Jay Field)
Jay Field
LOS ANGELES—Newly appointed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy stood with Corps
officials atop an overlook in Elysian Park at the confluence
of the Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles River Nov. 21 to see first
hand plans for the river’s restoration. The EPA chief said she
was pleased to visit Los Angeles and view the work that’s been
done to connect the community to the natural world.
“It’s building new partnerships with the Army Corps
to look beyond these small parks and how we connect our
communities to the river itself and how we restore that,” said
McCarthy. “It’s an exciting moment.”
McCarthy’s day-long visit to Los Angeles included a tour
of the Port of Long Beach and a nearby recycling facility. But
the opportunity to kayak a portion of the LA River was scuttled due to rain. Instead, the head of the EPA took a walking
tour along a bike path adjacent to the Glendale Narrows reach
of the river with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Corps’
South Pacific Division Regional Business Director Traci
Clever and City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell.
In her remarks, McCarthy praised the partnership and
vision of the team working on the ecosystem restoration
plan.
“We have found that green infrastructure has tremendous value; for flood management, for water quality, for
reconnecting people to natural resources and for building
cities that people want to live in,” she said. “The challenges
we face need planning; green infrastructure, like this, is part
of the solution.”
The iconic river has gained national attention since EPA
announced its declaration of the river as a Traditional Navigable Waterway. The Corps released the draft LA River Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study for public review and
comment Sept. 13, and received more than 500 comments as
of the period’s close Nov. 18.
- EPA CHIEF, Page 2 -