City glows green with eco-friendly Strand infiltration trench and storm drain projects
Eric Michael Stitt
The Beach Reporter
04/14/2010
Hermosa Beach is taking a large green step toward improving the water quality in the Pacific Ocean.
The city has taken on an inventive set of pilot projects that focuses on sending street water runoff underneath the beach instead of into the sea, meanwhile watering lush landscaping along Pier Avenue.
The projects, referred to as the Strand Infiltration Trench and Pier Avenue Storm Drain, cost about $2.1 million, and all came from grants. When finished, it will set a symbolic microscope on the city throughout the next year as experts will monitor exactly how much these eco-friendly additions will truly improve the environment.
Prior to these projects, when runoff water would flow down side streets to Pier Avenue, the storm drain would send it directly out into the ocean near the pier, contaminating it. According to the city, up to 80 percent of ocean pollution is caused by urban runoff that includes bacteria, trash and toxic metals, for example.
But now, the street water will be collected in catch basins along Pier Avenue and sent to reside in infiltration beds placed beneath the landscaping along the city’s thoroughfare.
Then any leftover water will run toward the ocean. But instead of funneling out the exit pipe and contaminating the salt water, the runoff will drop into the 1,000-foot filtration trench where it will disperse evenly into the beach about 4 feet below the sand surface. This is a new concept, said Public Works Director Rick Morgan.
“They’re both very innovative,” Morgan said of the projects. “There will be less polluted water in our ocean and it will be safer to swim and surf … Hermosa is about the beach and having clean water is our highest goal.”
The entire infiltration system is built to divert and absorb runoff that’s collected from residents watering lawns, washing vehicles, rinsing off sidewalks and driveways, and a very small amount of rainfall. Morgan said significant measures of rainwater would still drain into the ocean via a pipe near the pier. But rainwater is cleaner than the runoff from private properties due to the number of fertilizers and detergents used by residents.
Work on the Strand Infiltration Trench portion recently finished up and a ribbon-cutting will take place to commemorate it April 22 at 11 a.m. Meanwhile, the Pier Avenue Storm Drain project is currently being worked on and will be acknowledged at the completion of the Upper Pier Avenue renovation, now scheduled for August due to weather and various minor delays in construction.
Mayor Michael DiVirgilio said these two green projects are prime examples that show Hermosa Beach is very focused on improving the environment along with its pledge to become a carbon-neutral city. He hopes other coastal cities will use this town as a model for what can be done.
