Properly dispose of your dog’s poop — bag it and put it in the trash cans provided. Call (800) 675-HELP (4357) if you see anyone illegally dumping in Oxford Basin.
A neighbor brought up the fact that the basin was getting doggie bags thrown in it. There are many garbage cans around the basin. Please use one of them!!!!!
Kerjon Lee, County communications manager, said he would get someone to clean it up.
Plants are being planted, rail fencing is going in, and the walking path with lights have all become visible in the last couple of weeks. Kerjon Lee, public affairs manager for LA County Public Works, says project remains on target for a late May, early June opening.
Lee said the project is 85 percent complete but did not know at the time whether there would be an opening day ceremony.
“The two tide gates have been installed to reduce flood risk and provide regular tidal exchange necessary for improved water quality,” he wrote when asked the status. “A new vegetated berm in the middle of the basin is also working as designed to increase the circulation of water. The contractor recently installled irrigation lines to support the more than 45,000 native plants and trees being planted.
“According to Project Manager Rick Sun of LA County Public Works, the project walking path and decorative fencing elements are about 50 percent complete.”
Shows vegetation berm.
Plants just planted.
Decomposed granite for the walking path with lights.
Oxford Basin still under construction but with the saltwater/drain water mix.
The LA County Health Department reported an incident of West Nile Virus in the vicinity of the Oxford Basin, Venice areas and asked the LA County Vector Control Department to investigate.
Robert Saviskas, executive director of the LA County West Vector Control District, investigated immediately and found that storm drains had been blocked and salt water was not flowing into the basin. Dormant water causes mosquito infestation. Saviskas prepared a report in November explaining such.
The District has treated all of the open storm drain water in the Oxford Basin. The District has also treated the miles and miles of the backed up drain water via the man holes in the storm drains. They were breeding mosquitoes caused by the Oxford Basin renovation.
The District continued to treat all of these areas on a weekly basis until the ocean water once again flows into the basin. LA County Beaches & Harbors and Public Works have informed the District that the ocean water is schedule to flow back into the basin to mix with the storm drain water by December 31, 2015. Once the ocean water is allowed to flow freely into the basin again, it will be returned to its original salinity state and not breed mosquitoes in the future.
Saviskas said he also treated a couple of pools in the area that had dormant water and a couple of construction sites with similar problems.
“As soon as the salt water is allowed to flow into the basin, which was supposed to have been at the end of December, the mosquito problem will be solved naturally,” said Saviskas.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works was asked to make a statement regarding this. Kerjon Lee, public affairs manager for the County Public Works department made the following statement.
The county’s objective in the restoration of Oxford Basin is to create a more healthy and sustainable habitat for plants and wildlife and a recreational amenity for the local community.
Measures like the circulation berm were included to ensure that water within the basin would not be allowed to pond or stagnate. There were also a number of measures taken to prevent mosquitos from breeding during construction, including pumps that continually removed groundwater from the basin.
Last fall, when project managers were notified of possible mosquito breeding in a temporarily blocked storm drain leading to the basin, they moved quickly to eliminate those conditions. Currently, as part of the department’s regular operations, seawater is being circulated through the basin on a nearly daily basis to prevent standing water conditions.
LA County Public Works operates a 24-hour hotline at (800) 675-HELP (4357).
The County Public Works department spent the day (Tuesday) draining the north-of-Washington side of Oxford as the rain, which started at 3 am, continued, tapering to a drizzle after dawn. The south-of-Washington side of Oxford bubbled thru the sewer caps again.
The north side of Oxford drains into the middle of the basin on the north side of the basin. The south side drains into the basin pump station (east side of basin). One man felt that draining the north side would keep the basin down five feet. It drained down Mildred until the sidewalks were filled and it was draining as far as Wilson (west two streets). One person on Olive offered his Boogie board.
Then about noon, the crew decided to drain it down Harbor Street which turns into Holly court.
The crew did say they were going to put one-way flow restrictors on the Dickson-Oxford drain. This would prevent water from the basin backing up thru the drain at Dickson. It would allow water from Dickson to flow to basin but not reverse. Perhaps, there should be one at Oxford as shown in last photo.
Green hose is removing water from drain on Oxford, north of Washington, and blue is diverting water to Mildred.
Water on Olive rose past the sidewalk to the lawn.
It went two blocks west to Wilson.
This is the alley that turns into Harbor Street and then Harbor Court.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Oxford (south of Washington) water is draining into the Oxford Basin as best it can. The dark area is water not able to go into the basin or backing up from the basin and escaping out the sewer cap and going into the drain. One can see bubbles coming from the sewer cap.
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LATEST: Josh Svensson, County Department of Public Works engineer for the Oxford Basin redo, said Friday morning that it was indeed the flood gates and coupled with the high tide, the water was backing up into the Triangle. He said they had been working on the flood gates earlier in the day and an installed bladder “didn’t work.” There is a high tide this morning and one tonight.
That is the question that has not been answered as of this hour. Water is flowing into the residential areas via storm drains—curb openings and sewer tops and just arbitrarily new-made holes in the street. This started about 8 pm Thursday (30 July).
The drains that normally would be draining into the Oxford Basin were experiencing this reverse flow of water such as makes one suspect the Oxford Basin is draining into the low areas of Oxford Ave on both sides of Washington Blvd. A piece of sea weed was found and furthers the vote for the basin.
One resident mentioned the problems with the county leaving the flood gate open and with high tide, the Triangle gets flooded, she said.
Fire trucks were there looking for a burst water hydrant and left when they found there was not a hydrant problem. Department of Water and Power arrived and was looking for a broken water line. Nothing. DWP contacted his department to tell them that it was probably the Oxford Basin that was the problem and that they should notify the County. Parking enforcement arrived to block off the street. They were trying to divert traffic in case there was a sink hole created. Police closed Oxford north of Washington.
This shows a sewer cap with water coming out.
This looks like water going down the drain but it is actually flowing out of the drain.
A hole was made in Harbor Crossing lane and the water was cascading over the driveway into the street.
This is Howard at Oxford showing new holes created by the water pressure.
One of the parking enforcement officers found this sea weed that came out of the drain.
This is the Oxford north of Washington. One can see water is on the driveway.