LA River Topic

The LA River is a major river in Southern California. It is shaped like a comma and flows from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. It used to be a natural river, but it was channelized in the late 1930s. The river only provides 10% of the water supply and there are concerns about running out of water. One issue is that 80% of rainfall gets dumped into the ocean because there is no way to collect and reuse it. The water system is also facing leaks and evaporation. The increase in population has further stressed the water supply. The LA River has also caused flooding and water quality issues, with bacteria, pollutants, and trash found in the water. It is important to educate people about the river's issues and work towards its recovery by preventing pollution and cleaning up trash. Hello everyone, for my end of the year project topic I decided to go with the history of the Southern California Rivers, the LA River. The major rivers throughout Southern California are the Santa Clara River, the Los Angeles River, the San Gabriel River, the Santa Ana River, and the San Diego River. Where Colorado is the main source of income for these rivers, the river I will mostly speak about today is the LA River. The LA River is shaped like a coma and begins in the western of San Fernando Valley at the foothills of the Sima Hills and the Santa Monica and San Suzan Mountains. It flows east curving around Garfix Park and passing beneath the foothills of San Gabriel Mountains before flowing south all the way to Long Beach and the Pacific Ocean. The Los Angeles River cross section in the downstream portion is a trapezoid. The bottom within is 200 to 300 feet, top width is 400 to 600 feet, and the depth is 20 to 35 feet. This typical cross section decreases in the areas in the upstream direction of the river. The Los Angeles River runs approximately 51 miles through urban Los Angeles and serves neighboring cities to the harbor and the Pacific Ocean. The first 32 miles of the river flow through the city of Los Angeles. It was once a natural river that changed its course and flooded the area several times. Its wild nature led to its concrete channelization beginning in 1938 and completed in 1968. With residential issues, the river only provides 10% of water, so the big question is why are we running out? To start off, many residents do not know that 80% of the rainfall gets dumped back into the ocean because there is no significant way for us to collect it and reuse it. The problem with rainfall dumping is the realization of having to capture it and not knowing how we can capture it. The water leaks and evaporation in the water system are running incredibly low as of today. The increase of population of the city of Los Angeles now has stressed the water supply even more. This topic is connected to our class on climate change and the water system in the lecture notes. According to the RiverLA website, water quality since the LA River was channelized surrounding areas, streets, industries, etc. including pollution and the natural flooding system has been lost. Water Recharge Los Angeles County could capture up to 28.6 billion gallons of water per year to replenish our aquifers. Yet even greater problems have occurred. The river has caused flooding at least once a year. On top of that, the water has been tested and bacteria, copper, lead, trash, and zinc appear. As a reminder, there is no swimming in the LA River allowed. Yet there are ways for us to help the river gain its respects. By educating and allowing people to acknowledge the river's flaws and help it recover to nurture it back to health. And finally, by protecting the river from the germs going into it. And allowing residents to help out and pick up the trash around it so it won't constantly be polluted. And we can stop the oil spills and everything we have learned about the climate change and what pollution has occurred as well.