The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the $12 million grant agreement for the Bouquet Canyon Creek Recovery Project Planning to be awarded to L.A. County Public Works as part of the board’s consent calendar on Tuesday.
LARC Ranch and Bouquet Canyon residents’ well water supply was reduced to a trickle over concerns of road flooding a decade ago due to the water being no longer released regularly from the Bouquet Reservoir, owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
The primary issue that has been slowing progress on the issue has been the presence of the unarmored threespine stickleback, an endangered fish in Bouquet Creek.
The $12 million grant was unanimously approved in a State Wildlife Conservation Board meeting on Aug. 24 after a decade of complaints from Bouquet Canyon residents.
The grant will allow the county to enter the design phase of a major habitat restoration project along an 8-mile stretch of Bouquet Canyon Creek, downstream from Bouquet Reservoir.
The approval by the Board of Supervisors will authorize the director of Public Works, or his designee, to accept the grant funding from the Wildlife Conservation Board for the project, execute a grant agreement with the WCB and execute all other related documents. They will also be authorized to negotiate and execute amendments to the grant agreement for extensions of time, minor changes to scope of work and changes to the grant amount or budget of up to 20%.
The agreement states, “While the grantor undertakes to assist the grantee with the project by providing a grant pursuant to this agreement, the project itself remains the sole responsibility of the grantee.”
The work plan for the Bouquet Canyon Creek Recovery Project Planning phase consists of six tasks: Project management and coordination, working group and public outreach, preliminary design, design 30-60-90-100 (design milestones), environmental approvals and long-term monitoring, maintenance and management plan.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger and the L.A. County Department of Public Works team are set to hold a community information meeting on Thursday to inform the public on the project’s process and answer any questions.
This meeting is scheduled 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Grace Baptist Church, Room D221, 22833 Copper Hill Drive.
For more project information and updates, visit tinyurl.com/2dhh5b5n.
