Dear Friend of Los Cerritos Wetlands,
On September 13th at 6:00 PM, Councilmember Kristina Duggan, AES, and the City of Long Beach are hosting a meeting to discuss the City’s plan to keep water circulating in Alamitos Bay. Click here to RSVP. We appreciate the public outreach on this proposed project and hope you’ll join us there.
The City wants to address water pollution in Alamitos Bay by replacing massive cooling pumps at the AES power plant with “fish-friendly” pumps. The existing pumps are being shut down because the Clean Water Act requires it. Regulations passed in 2010 mandate phasing out “once-through cooling” statewide because these systems devastate the marine environment. Small plant and fish organisms, mostly eggs and larvae, are sucked into the pumps (entrainment) and killed by the pressure. Larger organisms, like fish and crabs, are killed on screens before entering the pumps (impingement).
Pollution in Alamitos Bay is an ongoing and significant problem that MUST be addressed. But it’s not the only problem. The entire Los Cerritos Channel watershed suffers from water pollution accumulating in Alamitos Bay. State and local governments are simultaneously planning an equally critical effort to restore Los Cerritos Wetlands to better ecosystem health. We support addressing all these goals with a coordinated and economical solution.
We hope the City will answer these questions at the meeting:
1) Water pollution in our Bay is primarily the result of contaminants like bacteria, nutrients, heavy metals, and trash running off our urban environment and ending up in the Bay or ocean. Will constructing and running new pumps solve that problem? Will the proposed pumps eliminate the pollutants or move the pollution problem into the San Gabriel River and, eventually, the ocean?
2) Can the City look at other less expensive and multi-benefit solutions to tackle water quality problems in Alamitos Bay? More modern solutions to water pollution include multi-benefit projects that clean up runoff near the source while creating more neighborhood “green space” and recharging groundwater. Examples are bio-swales in parks, parking lots, and streets (you can see one at work at the Colorado Lagoon) as well as other non-point source pollution collection solutions.
3) The proposed pumps project will cost a LOT of money, so let’s be sure the City has looked at all other solutions, which would cost much less before we go too far down this path. The proposed pumps would cost around $30-45 million to purchase and install and about $2 million annually to operate. We need to know how the City is planning to fund this project. And given that taxpayers already contribute to LA County’s “Safe Clean Water Program,” can that funding source be used to address water pollution?
4) Last but certainly not least, it is good news that significant funding is on its way to help restore the highly degraded Los Cerritos Wetlands. With the vast majority of Southern California wetlands lost forever to development and infrastructure, we need those few wetlands that remain to be high-quality habitat that protect and sustain fish and other species. Despite the plan to use “fish-friendly pumps,” won’t the operation remove local fish and vegetation and deposit them in the San Gabriel River? If pumping becomes the solution to water quality problems in Alamitos Bay, will it interfere with wetlands restoration goals?
I get it. I really do. AES pumps have been circulating the water in Alamitos Bay for decades, and no one wants water quality to worsen. On the other hand, how about exploring alternative solutions – nature-based projects that eliminate pollution near its source? Solutions that clean water (or catch trash) before it lands in the Bay provide multiple community benefits and are worth discussing.
Before we commit the City to spending millions of dollars – with no end in sight – let’s ensure all options have been explored.
I’ll be at the meeting to learn more and express my point of view and hope you will attend also. Details about the meeting, from Councilmember Kristina Duggan’s office, are below.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Lambe
Executive Director
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust
P.S. The cover article in our most recent newsletter outlines how the deadline for phasing out once-through cooling keeps extending despite all the harm to marine life. You can read it here..
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