After the rain, will the brook return to Brookside?
The precipitation in February in Los Angeles was 18 trillion gallons, or enough to fill 27 million Olympic-sized pools, according to “The Los Angeles Times.” But is it enough to help increase the water levels in the brook in Brookside?
A drop in water levels is being studied, according to Rob Fisher, field deputy at Councilmember David Ryu’s office. Hubertus Cox of the city Watershed Protection Division has been looking into it for the past year.
The source of the brook, called El Rio del Jardin de las Flores, is a natural spring that begins under John Burroughs Middle School and “daylights” from a pipe into the Brookside stream just south of Wilshire Boulevard. According to Cox, the source of the natural spring is groundwater in the surrounding areas. Because groundwater levels have been decreasing, the natural spring, and therefore the brook water levels, have also decreased. Drought has been one of the factors in the decreased water levels.
There are storm drains that run near the stream, but they are not connected to it. A study is being done to see whether the storm drains can be used to increase the levels of the brook flowing through Brookside, says Cox. But lots of questions need to be answered before that can happen. Field deputy Fisher said that one of the storm drains has “proven too unreliable as a future source” for the stream, while another storm drain appears to have “much greater water flow.”
“After the study is completed, there will be an investigation of potential engineering designs and costs,” Fisher said in an email.
Area resident and Realtor Sandy Boeck confirmed the presence of a flowing stream after the rain, “but it is only temporary,” she said.
Neighborhood resident Nanci Leonard called the stream “full and flowing” but added that it was a “false positive” and that the water would dissipate as soon as the rains ceased.
Realtor Richard Battaglia also noted that the brook was “not flowing the way it used to.”
In a previous Chronicle article by Billy Taylor (January 2018), homeowner Ethlie Ann Vare, who moved to the neighborhood in 1999, said that she had learned that water has been flowing through the neighborhood for 100 years and during many periods of drought.
So, while the rains have replenished the stream for now, research into the situation is ongoing.
Category: News
