'Little Dig' Starts in Hahamongna (Photo Gallery)

Work started this week on a project to remove more than 25,000 cubic yards of dirt from the Devil's Gate Dam in the Hahamongna Watershed Park.

The project, which will be carried out by the County Department of Public Works over the coming months, is the first step in a much larger project to remove nearly 2 million cubic yards of earth, debris, rocks, and fallen trees that have filled up the dam since the Station Fire in 2009.

In the mean time, the initial phase of the work, which one Town Council member dubbed the "Little Dig" (as compared to the "Big Dig" that will be coming down the line) will result in on-site storage of most of the debris at Johnson Field in Hahamongna.

There had been , and after agreeing to a biological study of the area, the county convinced Pasadena officials to allow them to store the debris on-site, sparing Windsor Avenue from an onslaught of dirt-hailing trucks.

The park will be open throughout the clean-out project, and unlike the proposed "Big Dig," it will not result in the removal of any trees in the park.