lagoondrain In a sweet piece of synchronicity, the Colorado Lagoon restoration plan that is overwhelmingly preferred by the public is also the most environmentally friendly, the most likely to be funded and the least costly to the City of Long Beach.

More than 100 people turned out at Recreation Park’s Bruin Den for Tuesday night’s meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Marine Commission, and nearly all of them exploded into cheers at the mention of Alternative 4-A—which would create a gently meandering creek along the western edge of Marina Vista Park, restoring the all-but-lost tidal flow between the Colorado Lagoon and Marine Stadium.

Of the a handful who raised their hands in opposition to that alternative, most cited their objection to the loss of up to 15 percent of the recreational space at Marina Vista Park. Some also dread the inconvenience of more construction; the area has been impacted all year by Los Angeles County’s ongoing rebuild of the Termino Ave. storm drain.

The effort to rehabilitate the Colorado Lagoon began about a decade ago. Water quality had become horrific, partly because of poor tidal flow (the lagoon and Marine Stadium are connected by a clogged, 50-year-old underground culvert) but also because the Colorado Lagoon had become a bedpan (11 storm drains empty into it, seven of them unfiltered, along with runoff from Recreation Park.

Members of Friends of the Colorado Lagoon (FOCL) turned out in force Tuesday night, but this may have been the least of the work they have done over the years. In addition to pulling political strings, they have participated in ongoing work programs, clearing invasive vegetation from the shoreline, installing native plants and raising the profile of the place that had become dismissed as the “Polio Pond” with public events like the Colorado Lagoon Acoustic Tidal Artwalk.

Phase I of the rehabilitation project has already begun, funded mostly by $3.2 million in federal stimulus money granted through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. When the arrival of a use-it-or-lose-it deadline for spending that money threatened to thwart the project late in 2009, the Port of Long Beach kicked in $1.3 million to get the work started.

Phase I objectives include installing low-flow diversion systems on most of the seven unfiltered storm drains, sending runoff into the city sewer system so it can be treated. Currently that kind of water just runs straight into the lagoon. Additionally, the old culvert is being cleaned. Meanwhile, the Termino Avenue storm drain project will also reduce runoff into the Colorado Lagoon.

Phase II—the subject of Tuesday’s meeting—deals with creating a larger connection between the Colorado and Marine Stadium. The four alternatives originally offered by city-contracted engineering firm Moffat & Nichols ranged from digging a second underground culvert to various configurations of an open channel. But agencies that might fund the project asked for another option—Alternative 4-A

Because of 4-A’s enhances seabird and plant habitat as well as improving water quality, it appears to have the best chance of qualifying for funding. In the case of the Port of Long Beach, for example, paying for the rehabilitation of the Colorado Lagoon might earn mitigation credits for its middle-harbor expansion plans.

Tuesday night’s 90-minute meeting was the only one that has scheduled to record community opinion to the Colorado Lagoon restoration project. However, the City of Long Beach will accept and chronicle written public response through Aug. 31.

Comments should be directed to Eric Lopez, the project manager, of the city’s Community Development Department:

Via e-mail, Lopez can be reached at eric.lopez@longbeach.gov.

Via the U.S. Postal Service, the address is:

Eric Lopez

Property Services Bureau

333 W. Ocean Blvd., 3rd Floor

Long Beach, CA 90802.