The County Department of Public Works will be holding its second public input Saturday on its plan to remove up to 4 million cubic yards of dirt and debris from the Devil's Gate Dam in the Hahamongna Watershed Park.
A preliminary discussion of that plan began last winter when the department was originally planning to begin the work without a full environmental impact report (EIR). That led to trouble with the environmental community, which expressed dismay at the possibility of acres of trees being removed during the clean-out.
Though removing sediment from the dam has long been scheduled, the project has taken on a new importance since the Station Fire of 2009, which led to enormous amounts of new dirt washing down from the mountains in winter rains.
The meeting will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Oct. 15 at
A preliminary project to remove dirt from the dam, coined the "Little Dig" by the Altadena Town Council, is already underway. That project will carry on for several more weeks with most of the removed sediment being stored on-site.
The "Big Dig" could take several years and could result in a daily stream of truck traffic in either Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge or both, as sediment and debris is hauled out of the park.
The EIR will explore alternative to minimize both the potential traffic and environmental impacts of the project.
