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Pasadena Water and Power Again Explains, Defends Plan for Pipeline Route Through West Pasadena Neighborhoods

Agency will not be choosing alternative routes near Rose Bowl

Published on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 | 6:04 am
 
Left; Pasadena Water and Power General Manager Gurcharan Bawa leads the Potable Water Project meeting. / Right; Linda Vista residents listen to presentation on Non-Potable Water Pipeline project.

Calling the project “short-term construction with long-term benefits,” Pasadena Water and Power General Manager Gurcharan Bawa on Tuesday night led the first of the most-recently called two public meetings regarding Pasadena’s non-potable water pipeline project, which would require laying pipes under residential streets in West Pasadena.

The thrust of the meeting at the Brookside Golf Club Tuesday evening was for the PWP to explain, as it has done twice before in City Council presentations, why no alternative route was being chosen for the project despite local protests from residents who live on or near the affected streets, and have been protesting the route since its inception a year ago.

Said a spokesperson for Councilmember Steve Madison, who represents the area, “This project has significant impacts for the Linda Vista neighborhood. Councilmember Steve Madison supports an alternate route that will take the pipeline away from some of the residential streets.”

Alternative Route Map

The pipeline would be built to transport non-potable water from an area near Scholl Canyon Landfill to the west side of Pasadena, traveling through residential areas along Laurel Avenue, Linda Vista, Arroyo Boulevard and Rose Bowl Drive on the way to the Sheldon reservoir on Arroyo Boulevard. Sources of the water would include recycled water produced by the Los Angeles/Glendale Water Reclamation Plant 10 miles west of Pasadena in Scholl Canyon, as well as raw water from the Arroyo Seco stream and the Devil’s Gate and Richardson tunnels, near Devil’s Gate Dam. The project would increase by 10 percent the amount of water available to businesses and residents of Pasadena for irrigation and other non-drinking water uses.

The project, according to PWP estimates, will provide 2,700 acre feet per year (AFY) for irrigation, with 400 AFY in the Monk Hill area and 2,300 AFY in the Pasadena Sub-basin area, underneath the Rose Bowl.

And the project is already running out of time.

Back in February, following approval of the Environmental Impact Report for the project, a PWP staff report recommended that the EIR be passed immediately in order to take advantage of a number of grant applications, which have already been submitted in partially-complete form. According to Shari Thomas, PWP interim general manager at the time, grant funding opportunities necessary to fund the actual construction of the pipeline are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and all require a complete EIR.

“Time is a consideration for us,” she said then. ‘We have several grant applications in progress.”

Nearly eight months later, the project is almost in danger of falling out of a State funding queue, given its slow pace of the project. The project was placed on an eligibility list in December 2015, which would cover 35% of the costs through a grant and an additional 65 percent through state loans. Any changes in the EIR, such as alternative routes, would only endanger the project further, said a PWP staff report.

PWP Water Engineering Manager Gary Takara, outlined numerous reasons for the City not choosing an alternative route other than Linda Vista West, a route that would require trenching along Laurel Avenue, but said the environmental impacts of both the approved and alternative routes are “less than significant.” Both would create temporary issues like noise, traffic, dust, limited access to properties during construction.

Takara added that the approved west route—using Linda Vista, Laurel Avenue, and Parkview Avenue, would be 2,900 feet long and cost an estimated $1.32 million, while the alternative west route, down Salvia Canyon and along West Drive, would be 5,200 feet long and cost an estimated $2.23 million.

Also, said Takara, the approved route impacts residents, while the alternative route impacts recreational users near Rose Bowl.

This angered resident Halaine Rose, who asked, “How can you compare the impact on cyclists and joggers with those who live here?”

Takara responded that the PWP looked at a lot of factors in making their decisions, and there are many kinds of impacts.

Takara also told the group that if an alternative route were to be selected, the California Environmental Quality Act report would have to be revised and approved by City Council, a four to five-month process.

Nina Chomsky, president of the Linda Vista Allendale Association, told Takara that she was “shocked that the City was not following its own EIR.” Chomsky claimed that the EIR had a mitigation provision that the construction project should take all necessary steps to minimize the possibility of liquefaction, but was not.

“You’re violating your own EIR,” she said.

According to the PWP report, an alternative route would result in a longer pipeline in potentially liquefiable zones

PWP also prepared an archaeological report, which surveyed five trenches dug into the under the supervision of three professional archaeologists, and three Native American monitors—Andrew Salas, Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians – Kizh Nation; Adrian Morales, Gabrielino Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians; and Robert Dorame, Gabrielino Tongva Indians of California. According to the PWP report, no pre-historical artifacts or features were found.

The PWP will hold another meeting at the same location January 12, 2017, at 6:30 p.m., to discuss the Rosemont Avenue alternative route .

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