| Spring 2002 Swimming Pool Construction Debris is dumped in the Big Lake at Hansen Dam These photos were taken in June 2002 by Lakeview Terrace residents Dennis Kroeplin and Margie Beeson. They played an important role in the 6/27/02 community presentation to Save the Lakes. click on any image to enlarge it | Per the Army Corps, it was in response to a request from the Los Angeles Department of Recreation & Parks that the destruction of the Hansen Dam Lakes moved into high gear in spring of 2002. This was despite the fact that in April, San Fernando High School students from Project GRAD had created a well-researched and thoughtful presentation, which recognized the value of the lakes as wildlife habitat and provided recommendations for improving that environment. Yet just a week after the Project GRAD's program ended, the destruction of the lakes was well under way. A slow but steady stream of unauthorized fill had been imported into the basin for years, but now it dramatically escalated, in blatant violation of California's Porter-Cologne Water Act, the Federal Endangered Species Act, state wildlife protection laws, and sections 1600-1607 of the State Fish & Game code. Yet a Corps ecologist approved the dumping in a Categorical Exclusion on the (incorrect) argument that no wildlife habitat was being adversely affected. One beneficiary of the Corps’ action? Lease holder Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. |
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| Spring 2003 update -- Citizens continued to raise their voices in protest of the Corps' environmental abuses, and the Los Angeles City Council responded on March 19, 2003 by voting unanimously to request the Army Corps to remove the swimming pool construction debris "expeditiously." Yet, no action has been taken. There are currently hundreds of lawsuits pending across the country, initiated by communities trying to protect themselves from environmental abuse committed by the Army Corps. Must Los Angeles join the list...? |
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