Sierra Club refuses to endorse Discovery Center

In a serious blow to the controversial San Gabriel River Discovery Center, the local chapter of the Sierra Club in May refused to endorse the proposed water museum and meeting center that threatens important community and environmental resources in east Los Angeles County .

One Sierra Club member said the center appeared to be a monument to water districts and county agencies. Another said the project would “destroy the atmosphere of local community — something that is as rare and valuable as remnant habitat.”

The executive committee (board of directors) of the Angeles Chapter opted instead for neutrality toward the $22 million taxpayer-funded project proposed for the Whittier Narrows Natural Area.

The significance of the Sierra Club move cannot be overstated. The local chapter has been involved in the project since 1999. For the organization to turn around now and refuse to give its blessing — after presentations by Belinda Faustinos, director of the Discovery Center Authority, and Russ Guiney, director of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation — is an important indication of the serious, unanswered questions that surround the project and the joint powers authority attempting to build it over the opposition of the community.

In discussions leading up to the chapter decision, local Sierra Club leaders questioned the wisdom of the project. One member said the center appeared to be a monument to water districts and county agencies. Another said the project would “destroy the atmosphere of local community — something that is as rare and valuable as remnant habitat.”

Project opponents within the Sierra Club and outside it (the latter including Bill Robinson, a director at one of the authority’s member water districts) made the case that too many grave doubts exist regarding the authority’s goals and priorities, the questionable environmental ethics and educational need for the Discovery Center , and the project’s financial viability.

For more information on our efforts to protect the natural area, please visit our website at http://www.naturalareafriends.net/.
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Photo: John Muir (Library of Congress)

Protecting corridors there, threatening them here

The Whittier Daily News and other Los Angeles-area media are reporting that the U.S. Forest Service wants to bring lands that stretch from the Santa Monica Mountains to the San Gabriel Mountains "under federal protection and would study the possibilities of trail development, land acquisition and preservation of wildlife corridors that connect different sections of open space in the area."

At a recent event at Pasadena's Eaton Canyon Nature Center, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff said: "These are incredible wild areas that are loosely connected corridors that allow for wildlife to pass through. If the areas become disconnected we lose those corridors."

The five-year study that was recently initiated to look into creation of the "Rim of the Valley Corridor" is not without its critics, but there still appears to be much to recommend the idea.

The agencies and water districts pushing the proposed San Gabriel River Discovery Center should take a page from these efforts. The Discovery Center, Lario Creek and other related projects, instead of enhancing the Whittier Narrows wildlife sanctuary and habitat connectivity, promise to destroy habitat and likely threaten habitat connectivity. (See the accompanying connectivity map, taken from the San Gabriel River Corridor Master Plan, and note where most corridors intersect .)

It's tragic that a few organizations charged with stewardship of our evermore scarce resources -- financial, ecological, recreational -- can be blind to reality and deaf to reason. But it's heartening to see that at least a few officials, such as Mr. Schiff, appear to be working for the good of the community and the environment.

Central Basin MWD raises price of water, cuts $1M internally -- continues support for Discovery Center

Why is Central Basin Municipal Water District (service area pictured at right) continuing its financial support for the proposed $30 million San Gabriel River Discovery Center at the same time that it's raising rates on its customers and making internal budget cuts?

The revenue report from the Discovery Center Authority's June 18 board report shows that Central Basin contributed $80,000 for fiscal year 2008/2009. And a table on the Discovery Center website shows that Central Basin has contributed at least $750,000 in total to the project.

This year's $80,000 from Central Basin is troubling in light of the water district board of director's approval last month of "a more than 100-percent increase in its surcharge that will be phased in over the next year," which was reported by the Whittier Daily News.

"This is on top of an already approved 21-percent increase . . . from Metropolitan Water District that goes into effect Sept. 1, " writes journalist Mike Sprague.

"We can't understand the justification. The rates are excessive, unsubstantiated and inappropriate." -- Joe Serrano, Santa Fe Springs City Council

Central Basin is one of the four member agencies in the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority, which is trying to build a controversial 18,230-square-foot watershed education and meeting center on the Whittier Narrows Natural Area.

But the rate hikes aren't the end of the story. Apparently, money is so tight at the water district, "officials said they've made $1 million in internal budget cuts."

News of Central Basin's fee increase went over like the proverbial lead balloon with local officials.

The news story quotes Santa Fe Springs Councilman Joe Serrano, among others: "We will have no choice but to raise our rates. We can't understand the justification. The rates are excessive, unsubstantiated and inappropriate."

Unpopular rate hikes, internal budget cuts--but Central Basin continues to throw money at the expensive, unnecessary and environmentally destructive Discovery Center.

Interesting priorities at Central Basin right now.

A strange model of environmental stewardship

For a project that is ostensibly designed to promote environmental stewardship, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center is pretty hard on the environment.

The project is planned for the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, the only wildlife sanctuary on the San Gabriel River, part of the Whittier Narrows Significant Ecological Area and part of an Audubon Society Important Bird Area. But the impact on such an environmentally important area was of little concern when it was selected as the site for the discovery center.

The summary of environmental impact (in the executive summary) states, "The EIR identifies potentially significant impacts requiring mitigation for Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Hydrology and Water Quality, and Noise."

The Discovery Center Authority and its member water districts have achieved quite an irony. The project is intended to "deliver a program about all aspects of watershed education," but the first step in the project causes so much damage to the watershed that mitigation is required.

The Discovery Center Authority and its member water districts have achieved quite an irony. The project is intended to "deliver a program about all aspects of watershed education: geologic setting, natural history, water quality and conservation, human reliance on river resources, flood
management, and river restoration." But the first step in the project causes so much damage to the watershed that mitigation is required.

And California law now requires projects to look at their contribution to global warming. How does the discovery center, a project that we are told is to be a model of environmental design, do with regard to this issue? Again the executive summary: "the proposed project would contribute to a significant cumulative impact related to global climate change."

"The proposed project would contribute to a significant cumulative impact related to global climate change."

When your service range is 25 miles in all directions but your location isn't served by public transportation, and when you're expecting so much traffic that you have to quintuple the size of the parking lot (from 33 cars to 150 cars, two bus spaces to three), then it really doesn't matter how green your building is--you're still going to make an oversized contribution to global climate change.

The county's Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory Committee couldn't have been more right when it rejected the discovery center project, saying that "there is an irony in ripping out nature to make it available." And while it supported the project in theory, SEATAC was "concerned that built out education center is not actually the model of what it should be in respect and relation to nature."

"The entire building is a showplace for the water districts. Why should that be put in a bird sanctuary?"

The project makes little sense if you approach it from an environmentalist's stance. But when you read the EIR, it's hard to escape the sense that the discovery center is essentially a marketing tool and meeting center for the water districts.

Others have noticed this about the project too.

"The project has now grown into this enormous museum for the entire watershed, and the actual nature center part of it is completely gone," said Grace Allen, a member of the Friends and president of the Whittier Narrows Nature Center Associates, in a recent news story. "The entire building is a showplace for the water districts. Why should that be put in a bird sanctuary?"

A very good question.