Los Angeles River Project Wins Key Support

“We can now begin the process of returning our historic waterway to its natural beauty,” he said.

Barely a day before, O’Farrell was suggesting a hybrid bill that would combine two proposals that were still on the table, known as Alternative 13, costing $485 million and Alternative 20, costing $1 billion.

It had been thought that the federal office of the Army Corps would go with Alternative 13 because of the smaller cost. The local Army Corps had recommended Alternative 20, “which is what we all want,” O’Farrell said, but that had been held up in Washington.

In anticipation of a negative vote on Alternative 20, O’Farrell was preparing a hybrid bill to keep the best of both proposals.

But now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to recommend approval of the full $1 billion proposal to restore habitat, widen the river, create wetlands and provide access points and bike trails. Now with the support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the $1 billion project plan for the LA River will be written in the ARBOR Study by late fall, early winter. ARBOR stands for Alternative with Restoration Benefits and Opportunities for Revitalization Study. From there the plan will go through congress where hopefully 50% of the funding which is $500,000, will be approved and funded by the Government. Once congress approves this, Los Angeles is still liable for the other half of the project funding.

O’Farrell sees the river revitalization bringing thousands of jobs to Los Angeles. “There will be $1 billion in improvements over the next 20 years,” O’Farrell said. To make these improvements happen, many people will be employed. “Anytime there is a public investment in infrastructure… private investment follows. So we are trying to create the mechanism to bring more people to the river and it’s already working.” he said. “We’ve put all of the building blocks in place. We just need the feds now to meet us half way.”