Lake Forest to Get County Funds to help Combat Flooding, Pollution

Lake Forest is one of multiple cities throughout Orange County that will use grants from the Orange County Transportation Authority to help reduce pollution.

The nearly $2.9 million in funding comes from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2006, according to OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik.

Lake Forest will get $100,000 and contribute $33,000 of city funds to retrofit approximately 101 catch basins at various locations around the city. Among other benefits, the improvements will help control flooding during heavy storms such as the ones predicted during the upcoming El Nino rainy season.

The area governments competed for the grants. The OCTA board on Aug. 10 approved funding for 18 projects mostly aimed at catching trash before it ends up in the ocean.

Since the agency began awarding the grants in 2011, it has approved funding for 102 projects costing about $11 million, Zlotnik said. Officials estimate 500,000 cubic feet of trash has been collected as a result.

The cities that received the latest grants are Fullerton, La Habra, Orange, Westminster, Mission Viejo, Tustin, Buena Park, Lake Forest, Fountain Valley, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, Irvine, Cypress, Garden Grove, Anaheim, Brea and Laguna Hills.

City News Service