Sediment Removal Resumes at Devil's Gate Dam

- Written by Craig Clough

Work at Hahamongna Watershed Park and Devil's Gate Dam is underway this week by Los Angeles County workers who are removing sediment in preparation for the coming storm season. The work is expected to take about a month. 

The project was explained in an email press release that was sent out by the county, which said that the work was due to the "extremely dry storm season this past year." 

Less than 5,000 cubic yards is expected to be removed and stockpiled at Johnson Field to be removed when the larger Devil's Gate Sediment Removal and Management Project takes place, which is expected to start in 2015. 

The email also stated, "Additionally, any green waste such as tree branches and other vegetative matter that is removed will be trucked to the Scholl Canyon Landfill in Glendale at a rate of no more than 10 trucks per day to avoid traffic impacts to the surrounding neighborhood." 

This is the third time since 2011 that sediment has been removed from the Devil's Gate Dam area due to the buildup that occurred in Hahamonga from the 2009 Station Fire, which burned approximately 68 percent of the watershed tributary to Devil's Gate, and approximately 100 percent of the undeveloped portion, making sediment deposition inevitable during storms, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

In 2011, 15,000 cubic yards were removed and in 2012, 1,500 cubic yards were removed. But these are considered "interim" measures in advance of the Devil's Gate Sediment Removal and Management Project, which is expected to remove up to 4 million cubic yards of sediment, Patch previously reported. 

The draft  Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Devil's Gate Sediment Removal and Management Project is expected to be completed in October. Project construction is expected to start in the summer of 2015 and finish in the fall of 2019.