With the roar of the San Gabriel River headwaters in the background, federal and state environmental agencies announced a $3.5 million grant to rid the river of trash, debris and pollutants at an event held near the entrance to the Angeles National Forest on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
The White House, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State Water Resources Control Board teamed up to provide grant dollars to fund a stalled project that will add access trails, picnic structures, trash bins and designated parking to the heavily used East Fork river area in the Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument (SGMNM).
“Today we are announcing new funding to address the long-standing problem of trash pollution in the East Fork of the San Gabriel River,” began Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “It is a really important start,” she said.
Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announces an additional $3.5 million to be allocated to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument wilderness area on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Mallory, who came from Washington D.C. to the Angeles, said the money is not a panacea to solve a protracted problem of too many people crowding the East Fork, about 18 miles from Azusa off Highway 39. For years, visitors have polluted the location by leaving behind dirty diapers in the river, as well as trash along its banks that can include barbecues and beach chairs. River boulders are often marred by graffiti. Makeshift sand-and-rock dams in the river place the rare, threatened Santa Ana sucker fish in danger.
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The area, which includes the Oaks Picnic Area, is known to receive 15,000 visitors per day in the summer.
She said she’s counting on more money that often comes after monument designations. Almost exactly 10 years ago, President Barack Obama designated 346,179 acres of the Angeles as the SGMNM. “And additional money came after the 2014 designation,” noted Mallory after the event in an interview.
About $6.5 million in additional federal funding, plus $4 million in philanthropic donations arrived shortly after Obama’s original designation.
In May, Biden added 106,000 acres in the southwesterly area of the Angeles to the SGMNM, and that came with $2 million from the California Conservation Corps for six new forest rangers, plus $2.3 million in federal Great American Outdoors Act funding.
“A designation is meaningless unless there is resources that come with it. And the $3.5 million dollars to address the issues of the SGMNM is so fantastic,” said Rep Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, who for 20 years has worked on getting monument status as an overlay of protection on the federal forest land, as well as additional monies for the under-funded U.S. Forest Service, which manages the 700,000-acre Angeles that includes the SGMNM.
The money comes from the U.S. EPA, which was funneled to the state water board. The board granted the money to the Watershed Conservation Authority, the lead on what is called the East Fork/Cattleman Canyon Project, which includes improvements to the East Fork day-use site.
The Oaks area has the most crowds and the most trash left behind. The East Fork, part of the San Gabriel River which is a major source of drinking water for the region, provides Los Angeles County with one-third its water supply.
But at times, it has had so much trash that the local water board called the river water “impaired,” and requires the USFS to monitor total trash levels in the river. The state board issued the grant as a way to ensure less pollution and trash in the river water.
The entire project would stretch 2.5 miles along the river bend in the forest and cost about $28 million, said Nola Eaglin-Talmage of the WCA and project manager.
She said the $3.5 million will be enough to build the first phase at Oaks Picnic Area, one of five phases of the project.
“The money will go to help construction of the project,” she said on Tuesday. “For things like parking spaces, access trails, restrooms, trash receptacles, shaded picnic areas and interpretive signage. This helps directly with that.”
Construction of the project’s first phase is expected to start in January, state officials reported.
Chu said she visited the East Fork area 15 years ago and saw the need for improvements first-hand.
“I saw women and children crawling on their hands and knees trying to get to the river because there was no trail. I saw trash, graffiti and so many cars there was chaotic parking going on. That is what led us to say there has to be more resources,” she told about 100 officials who gathered at the event.
Nathan Nunez, who started the Canyon City Environmental Project, a local nonprofit that has organized trash pickup days in East Fork, said he hopes one day things will be different. “We continue to advocate for more resources in the hope that one day we won’t have to pick up several tons of trash,” he told the group.
Trash left behind in East Fork area. The Canyon City Environmental Project began a cleanup there on July 30, 2023. In the first three hours volunteers with the group removed over a ton of trash. (Photo courtesy of Canyon City Environmental Project.)
Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the State Water Board, said his agency would continue to cooperate with federal, tribal and local nonprofits in cleaning up the river and the areas used by people visiting the monument.
“People exploring the beautiful national monument or hiking or swimming in the river should not be greeted by piles of trash,” he said in a prepared statement.
The project would commence while the area is without visitors. The East Fork Area is closed to the public through the end of December 2025, until it can recover from the 55,000-acre Bridge fire that broke out in early September in the East Fork and spread to Big Pines and Wrightwood.
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Related links
Leaders, groups ‘elated’ over possible Biden expansion of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument
Biden expands San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, adds forest rangers, funding
Is Biden’s boost enough to build new river access at overused area of San Gabriel Mountains?
President Obama declares 346,000 acres of San Gabriel Mountains a national monument
Cause of 54,000 acre Bridge fire remains under investigation