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Caltrans pledges $8.5 million toward Monrovia-led Rio Hondo water-quality project at Peck Lake
Summary
Monrovia and five partner cities are advancing a roughly $30 million Rio Hondo ecosystem restoration project (Peck Lake) to improve stormwater filtration. City staff said Caltrans has committed $8.5 million—more than 25% of estimated cost—to construction in exchange for pollutant-load reduction credit toward permit compliance.
Monrovia staff told the City Council on Sept. 2 that regional partners and state agencies are moving forward on a multi-city Rio Hondo ecosystem restoration project centered at Peck Lake that aims chiefly to clean and filter stormwater rather than expand storage capacity.
City Manager Dylan described the project as a roughly $30 million effort undertaken through a joint powers authority formed by six member cities. The projects are designed to pool funding and deliver a series of larger regional stormwater-treatment installations rather than each city building individual smaller projects.
"Our project is about that safe clean water component, not so much a storage component," Dylan said. He said the design includes built-in extra filtration capacity so additional partners can join and receive water-quality benefits.
Last week the city received a letter from Caltrans expressing support and an intent to allocate $8,500,000 toward construction of the Peck Lake project, Dylan said. "This is more than 25% of the total project cost that will be paid for by Caltrans," he said, and noted that Caltrans would receive pollutant-load reduction credit toward its permit compliance in return.
Dylan described the project's local benefits as expanded recreational amenities at Peck Lake, improved water quality for Rio Hondo and Soppet Wash, and reduced trash and pollutants entering downstream channels. He said the joint powers authority will manage the work and the project dollars rather than Monrovia accounting for the entire construction budget in its city audits and capital plan.
City staff and councilmembers celebrated the funding step as a significant contribution that advances a long-running regional effort to meet Los Angeles County's Safe Clean Water requirements.
Project leads mentioned in council remarks included Alex Tachiki and Sofia Suz (project staff; Suz was not present at the Sept. 2 meeting). The council did not take a separate funding vote at the Sept. 2 meeting; staff described the Caltrans letter of support and noted continued design and permitting steps ahead of construction.
