Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Signs have sprouted around the edges of Echo Park Lake informing visitors of an upcoming project to drain and clean up the lake’s waters, which are contaminated with everything from trash to traces of toxic compounds. One of the many challenges to keep those waters clean after the $64.7 project is completed are toxic solvents that have over the decades seeped into the ground underneath the Holloway Cleaners building at the corner of Echo Park Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. It’s been more than 20 years since state environmental officials found evidence that toxic chemicals commonly used in the dry cleaning business – Perchloroethylene (PCE) and Trichloroethylene (TCE) – had contaminated the soil and groundwater underneath the three-story building. A plan to monitor and deal with that contamination was put in place, and the dry cleaners, which has changed hands over the years, now abides by hazardous waste disposal practices, according to a city official. But the environmental damage had already been done.
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Visitors to Echo Park Lake this morning found that a huge eucalyptus tree had crashed into part of a playground on the north end of the park as high winds streaked across the area. At least one resident who lives near the park thought he had hear the sound of a tree falling last night but it’s not clear when the tree fell or if anyone was injured.
* Update: The high winds were being blamed for numerous power outages last night and this morning. Councilman Eric Garcetti on his Facebook page notes that more than 7,000 DWP customers in his district, which stretches from Hollywood to Echo Park, were without power earlier this morning.
Meanwhile, more tree trouble in Silver Lake, where a large tree fell in the 1600 block of Lucile Avenue, blocking the street north of Sunset Boulevard. Click on the link below for the photo by Sandy Driscoll.
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By Mary A. Allen
The City Council’s Energy and Environment Committee today approved the final environmental impact report for the Echo Park Lake rehabilitation without fanfare or discussion. The 1,200-page report, which lays out the plan for the $64.7 million clean up, now goes to the full City Council for a final vote within two weeks. It is expected to pass, clearing the way for work to begin on the project next year.
No one spoke in favor or against the proposal, which was approved without discussion within the first five minutes of the meeting as part of a batch of other agenda items.
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Many Echo Park Lake swap meet vendors packed up their wares and folded up their tarps this afternoon as police issued warnings and tickets to those who refused to leave. About a handful of vendors were cited for soliciting on city property in the first-such sweep by police against the Echo Park vendors, said Sgt. Joel Miller with the Rampart Division. Police were there to warn and educate the vendors about the law than to issue citations, Miller said.
“We understand they are trying to make a living,” Miller said. But the park “wasn’t meant to be a swap meet.”
An Echo Park resident posted a comment to this story describing the mass exodus of vendors:
“Immediately upon setting my feet on the park grounds, the sellers were packing up and running away. I have never witnessed such a mass exodus at the park. It was eerie, people grabbing their wares and running into the street … I continued to walk around the park to Glendale Blvd where I saw frantic people driving their vans into the park to expedite the collection of their items. You asked for money, money was everywhere. People were trying to sell items as they were packing them into their vans, bags, u-hauls and other means of transportation.”
Only a few vendors, who have sprawled along much of the northern and eastern edges of the park, were still present at about 4 PM.
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Echo Park bird lovers expressed their frustration earlier this year over the city’s proposal to drain all of Echo Park Lake as part of an upcoming $84 million water quality project. Wildlife advocates wanted to keep some water in the 13-acre lake for the benefit of migratory birds. But city engineers said doing would slow down construction, forcing the closure of the park for up to four years instead of two. After more study, however, the city engineers have come up with a compromise, proposing that up to four temporary pools will be maintained during the construction period “to provide a water source for migratory birds.” That information comes from a notice informing the public that a draft environmental impact report is now available for inspection. The report is not online, however, but is available at local libraries. The public has until the end of August to comment on the report. A public hearing as been scheduled for August 4 at Barlow Hospital.
Related stories:
* Will cleaning up Echo Park Lake wipe away its historic landscape? The Eastsider
* Cleaning up Echo Park Lake is going to be a big mess for residents. The Eastsider
Photo by Mocdragon/Flickr
2008 Dragon Boat race/Photo courtesy Cecilia Fernandez
The 32nd annual Lotus Festival is scheduled to take place this weekend at Echo Park Lake but without one of its signature events, the Dragon Boat Races. The sight of the colorful boats – pairs of metal skiffs that were tied together and decorated with dragon heads and tails – was always a crowd pleaser. Crew members on racing teams with such names as Fresh off the Sushi Boat and the CD 13 Garcettians came from throughout Southern California to compete on the second weekend of July. Many were looking forward to this year’s races after last year’s were canceled. But, for reasons that remain unclear, this year’s competition was also scuttled.
Former Echo Park resident Cecelia Fernandez, who now lives in San Diego County, was informed of the cancellation before her team – the Krazy 8s – were scheduled to practice at the end of June. In 2008, when the last Dragon Boat Races were held, the Krazy 8s beat the previously undefeated Echo Park Locals and ended up taking a Third Place trophy. Fernandez, who grew up a block away from Echo Park Lake on Bonnie Brae Street, said she and her fellow Krazy 8s crew members will have to wait until another Lotus Festival to compete again.
“The Dragon Boat races brought in big crowds of people, which brought in revenue,” Fernandez said by email. ” I am just glad that we still hold the trophy for community and we went out as champs.”
Echo Park’s scaled down Lotus Festival, scheduled for next week, keeps getting smaller and smaller. The organizers announced earlier this year that the giant festival celebrating Asian and Pacific cultures would return to Echo Park Lake this July after budget cuts forced the city’s Recreation and Parks Department to cancel the 2009 event. But apparently reviving the Lotus Festival on a smaller-scale has proved a challenge. Organizers have announced that the popular Dragon Boat Races have been canceled, and offered the teams – which in years past have paid $125 to participate in the races – to return their money. The email sent out by Heritage Asian Pacific, one of the groups involved in the event, blamed “unforeseen complications” but did not provide many details:
“After much discussion and deliberation, HAP, Inc. has made this difficult decision to cancel the races, we are a not-for profit organization. Our goal is to continue to provide scholarships to graduating high school students to further their higher education aspirations. It is due to these unforeseen complications that will prevent us to provide such an important and necessary benefit for those most in need of our scholarships.”
Dragon boat photo by Tammy Manet/Flickr
Foster is Recreation & Parks groundskeeper whose main job this week has been to collect all the dead carp floating in Echo Park Lake. More than 200 fish have died in recent days, with one state official speculating that a form of carp or koi herpes is to blame. But no one knows for sure. Meanwhile, someone has to scoop all those dead fish from the water, a job that has fallen primarily to Foster. This morning, after picking up dead fish along the shoreline, Foster took out a boat to collect more fish further out in the water, dumping the bodies into a trash can until it was full. Foster placed a scented candle he found in the park this morning inside his truck to help ward off the smell. So far there are no signs the fish-die off is slowing down as Echo Park Lake prepares to host two events this weekend, a Cuban Music Festival and an Obesity Walk. Nothing like the sight of dead fish to kill your appetite.
About 200 dead fish – almost all of them carp – have been collected from Echo Park Lake this week as one possible reason for the die-off has emerged: herpes. Echo Park Lake gardener and care taker David Foster, who noticed the die-off over the weekend, said an official from the state’s Department of Fish & Game visited the lake this morning to take a look at the dead fish. The state official suspected that the fish might be suffering from a carp or koi herpes similar to one spreading through the Colorado River but he was not sure, according to Foster. The state official did not take any of the dead fish or conduct tests.
A story posted on Arizona’s Game & Fish website said the Koi Herpes Virus is most active when water temperatures rise, especially above 71 degrees. The virus is “not a threat to public health” but the Arizona agency advised anglers to avoid “taking carp and focus on other species during an active outbreak.”
The exact reason for all the dead carp at Echo Park Lake, however, remains a mystery. The Eastsider has contacted the city’s Recreation and Parks Department as well as the California Fish & Game department for more details.
Foster has begun his mornings this week by picking out dead carp – and a handful of game fish – from the lake and answering questions from park visitors. This morning, about 20 dead fish were seen floating in the water. “We just need to know what’s going on,” Foster said.
Related story:
Echo Park anglers await the first truck load of trout. The Eastsider
About 40 dead fish have been found floating on the surface of Echo Park Lake over the weekend, and park workers are struggling to find out what has caused the die-off. All of the dead fish have been carp, which breed in the lake, said gardener and caretaker David Foster. None of the dead fish include the catfish and trout brought in by the state Department of Fish & Game, which stocked the lake last week. Foster, who has worked at Echo Park Lake for about six years, said the lake has experienced fish die offs before but not in such large numbers. Foster said fisherman at the lake this weekend were reeling in large numbers of the newly stocked fish.
“I’m worried,” Foster said Monday. “We are trying to get a [state] biologist out here to try and figure this out.”
Foster said carp, which have been spawning in recent weeks, far outnumber the catfish, trout and other fish brought in by the state. The dead fish have been thrown away as Foster waits to hear back from the Department of Fish & Game as to what to do next.
Related story:
Echo Park anglers await the first truck load of trout. The Eastsider
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