Large Waves and High Water
Dear
Beachhead,
For several years I have
been trying to bring attention to the precarious situation of Venice, CA in
regard to flooding. While much is made of the story of Abbot Kinney and the
canals, little is said about the reason for the canals.
It began with a body of water called the
Del Rey Lagoon which ran from Venice to Playa del Rey, about two miles
long.
In 1880 a company was formed to
dredge the lagoon to a depth of twenty feet and create a 200 foot wide channel
to the ocean. That project failed due to relentless waves and rain storms which
replaced the sand as soon as it was moved. A large portion of the fishing pier
collapsed in July 1911 and again in July 1917. Tide gates, which maintained high
water in the lagoon, had to be dynamited during a heavy winter rainstorm because
nearby Venice flooded.
There has been
much change to the area since then. But Mother Nature has not changed.
Periodically she will do her best to reclaim the area. Recent storm waves
severely damaged the pier at Washington Blvd. And Venice is still protected by
tide gates which empty into the lagoon now called Marina del Rey which has a
large channel open to the seas.
On
March 16, 2004, I advised residents living on Oxford Avenue (an area subject to
flooding) of an IRP (Integrated Resources Plan) meeting on “The Future of
Your Water, Wastewater & Runoff and Give Us Your Input” to be held in
Venice on March 30.
In order to be
prepared for the local meeting, I attended the IRP meeting on March 23 in the
San Fernando Valley where I was not the only one to bring up the issue of
flooding in coastal areas. These comments were noted by the IRP staff
attending.
On March 30, 2004 at the
meeting in Venice, it was apparent that the team from the valley had not
communicated with the team from West L.A. who promised to “look into
it.” It is now two and half years after that event and I am still waiting
to hear from them. But I did learn that an IRP advisory committee had been set
with 40 members, not one of whom lived in Venice. Two successive L.A. City
Council members,
Galanter and
Miscikowski, missed the opportunity to put someone from Venice on the IRP
Commission. Yet all the hillside areas were well
represented.
The recent tsunamis which
caused so much suffering and damage in Sumatra, Chile, Japan and Hawaii are
examples from which we can learn. If a high tide and a heavy rain can overcome
our drainage system now on Oxford and Windward, what might it be like if Mother
Nature sends us a really big
wave?
Awareness of the risk and what to
do about it is the aim of the VNC task force preparing the Town Hall at
Westminster School for June 7, 2007. I hope they achieve their
goal.
Thank you, Beachhead, for
providing this opportunity to
communicate.
DeDe Audet
Posted: Tue - May 1, 2007 at 01:00 PM