La Mirada : Creek Restoration Grant Request Denied by State

The state Department of Water Resources has denied La Mirada’s application for $300,000 to permanently shore up the eroding banks of La Mirada Creek, city officials have announced.

The city had applied five months ago for a state grant under the Urban Stream Restoration Program, said Perry Turigliatto, director of the city’s Environmental Services Department.

The money was to be used to repair a 310-foot stretch of the creek outside of La Mirada Creek Park and generally parallel to Las Flores Avenue near Imperial Highway. The creek began eroding two years ago from heavy rains.

“We’ve rebuilt it three times. In a year or so it is back where it started. We’re spending too much time reconstructing this thing every two years or so,” Turigliatto said.

Mayor Art Leslie expressed dismay that the city’s application had been denied, saying that previous efforts to stop the banks from washing away after rainfall were “extensive Band-Aids.”

Terry Brown, a staff member at the Department of Water Resources, declined to comment on why the city’s application was denied.

But she said that La Mirada was one of 122 cities in the state to apply for a grant under the program. Of $9 million in grant applications, the water resources department’s seven-member review team approved grant applications from 34 cities totaling $800,000, she said. The average grant was $30,000.