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Ballona Creek
Ballona Creek (pronunciation: "Bah-yo-nuh" or "Buy-yo-nah") is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows". The urban watercourse begins in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, flows through Culver City and Del Rey, and passes the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve, the sailboat harbor Marina del Rey, and the small beachside community of Playa del Rey before draining into Santa Monica Bay. The Ballona Creek drainage basin carries water from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, from the Baldwin Hills to the south, and as far as the Harbor Freeway (I-110) to the east.
Before colonization, the Tongva village of Guashna was located at the mouth of the creek. Ballona Creek and neighboring Ballona Wetlands remain a prime bird-watching spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and birds of prey. In 1982, film critic Richard von Busack, a native of Culver City, described the channelized creek as "a cement drainage ditch indistinguishable in size and content from the Love Canal."
The Ballona Creek watershed totals about 130 square miles (340 square kilometers). According to a 1948 report in the Venice Evening Vanguard, "The total area drained by Ballona Creek consists of 86 square miles (220 km2) square miles of coastal plain and 74 square miles (190 km2) of foothills and plain range from sea level to 250 feet (76 m) and in the mountains from 250 feet (76 m) to 1,550 feet (470 m). The average gradient of the valley floor is about 20 feet per mile (3.8 m/km) and that of the canyon channels is about 200 feet per mile (38 m/km). The longest distance at any given time taken by the water in this drainage system is 17 miles (27 km)." Before most of Los Angeles' watercourses were buried underground, Ballona Creek drained the whole of the west Los Angeles region and fed directly from a chain of ciénegas and lakes that stretched from the Hollywood Hills to the Baldwin Hills.
The major tributaries to the Ballona Creek and estuary include Centinela Creek channel, Sepulveda Creek channel, and Benedict Canyon channel; most of the creek's natural minor tributaries have been destroyed by development or paved over and flow into Ballona Creek as a network of underground storm drains.
Ballona Creek watershed's climate can be characterized as Mediterranean with average annual rainfall of about 409 millimeters (16 inches). Land use in the watershed is 64% residential, 17% open space, 8% commercial, and 4% industrial. The flow rate in the creek varies considerably, from a trickle flow of about 14 cubic feet (0.40 cubic metres) per second during dry weather to 71,400 cu ft (2,020 m3) per second during a 50-year storm event. Note: In Los Angeles County, the "water year" is measured beginning October 1 continuing until the next September 30, rather than by calendar year.
Natural channels remain at some of the headwaters of Ballona Creek tributaries, while the lower portion of the stream is encased in concrete channels either rectangular in the east or trapezoidal toward the west; to the west of Centinela Avenue, the bottom of the creek is unpaved and subject to tidal influence.
Many of these run wholly or partially underground in storm drains that empty into the creek.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, other contributing elements of the contemporary watershed, besides the major tributaries, are Baldwin Hills Park, Del Rey Lagoon Park, Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve, Grand Canal, the Venice Canals, Ballona Northeast (Area C—State lands), Bluff Creek and Ballona Wetlands, Marina del Rey (including Marina Del Rey Wetland Park), and Oxford Flood Control Basin.
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Ballona Creek
Ballona Creek (pronunciation: "Bah-yo-nuh" or "Buy-yo-nah") is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows". The urban watercourse begins in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, flows through Culver City and Del Rey, and passes the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve, the sailboat harbor Marina del Rey, and the small beachside community of Playa del Rey before draining into Santa Monica Bay. The Ballona Creek drainage basin carries water from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, from the Baldwin Hills to the south, and as far as the Harbor Freeway (I-110) to the east.
Before colonization, the Tongva village of Guashna was located at the mouth of the creek. Ballona Creek and neighboring Ballona Wetlands remain a prime bird-watching spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and birds of prey. In 1982, film critic Richard von Busack, a native of Culver City, described the channelized creek as "a cement drainage ditch indistinguishable in size and content from the Love Canal."
The Ballona Creek watershed totals about 130 square miles (340 square kilometers). According to a 1948 report in the Venice Evening Vanguard, "The total area drained by Ballona Creek consists of 86 square miles (220 km2) square miles of coastal plain and 74 square miles (190 km2) of foothills and plain range from sea level to 250 feet (76 m) and in the mountains from 250 feet (76 m) to 1,550 feet (470 m). The average gradient of the valley floor is about 20 feet per mile (3.8 m/km) and that of the canyon channels is about 200 feet per mile (38 m/km). The longest distance at any given time taken by the water in this drainage system is 17 miles (27 km)." Before most of Los Angeles' watercourses were buried underground, Ballona Creek drained the whole of the west Los Angeles region and fed directly from a chain of ciénegas and lakes that stretched from the Hollywood Hills to the Baldwin Hills.
The major tributaries to the Ballona Creek and estuary include Centinela Creek channel, Sepulveda Creek channel, and Benedict Canyon channel; most of the creek's natural minor tributaries have been destroyed by development or paved over and flow into Ballona Creek as a network of underground storm drains.
Ballona Creek watershed's climate can be characterized as Mediterranean with average annual rainfall of about 409 millimeters (16 inches). Land use in the watershed is 64% residential, 17% open space, 8% commercial, and 4% industrial. The flow rate in the creek varies considerably, from a trickle flow of about 14 cubic feet (0.40 cubic metres) per second during dry weather to 71,400 cu ft (2,020 m3) per second during a 50-year storm event. Note: In Los Angeles County, the "water year" is measured beginning October 1 continuing until the next September 30, rather than by calendar year.
Natural channels remain at some of the headwaters of Ballona Creek tributaries, while the lower portion of the stream is encased in concrete channels either rectangular in the east or trapezoidal toward the west; to the west of Centinela Avenue, the bottom of the creek is unpaved and subject to tidal influence.
Many of these run wholly or partially underground in storm drains that empty into the creek.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, other contributing elements of the contemporary watershed, besides the major tributaries, are Baldwin Hills Park, Del Rey Lagoon Park, Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve, Grand Canal, the Venice Canals, Ballona Northeast (Area C—State lands), Bluff Creek and Ballona Wetlands, Marina del Rey (including Marina Del Rey Wetland Park), and Oxford Flood Control Basin.