Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-23
RIVER MUST RUN
IN WEST FORK
LONG BEACH PROPERTY TO
BE PROTECTED
$1,000 Subscribed to Pay Expenses Of
Engineering Work to Put Los
Angeles Stream in Pre-.
pared Bed

By order of the county board of
supervisors yesterday, the petition
from the property owners of Long
Beach, asking for a protection district
to stave off the inroads of the Los
Angeles river, was granted, and today
a corps of surveyors under special
engineer will take UP the work of map
ping out q plan for the new river bed,
which Is to extend from the old Ger
ritos ranch house TO the sea.
This district has been petitloned for
several years. but until the present.
time there has always been enough
sentiment against the paying of the
heavy assessment to defeat the move-
ment
Yesterday when the petition was pre-
scented to the county board there were
about twenty representatives from
Long Beach present. Many of them
complained that district was sadly
needed and that work ought to be be-
gun Immediately.
Property Damaged
In days gone by, especially the past
two or three seasons, when the rains
have been unusually heavy, the waters
of the Los Angeles river, have swept
into the east fork of the river, after
having filed the west fork. So long as
the west fork carried the center of
tie stream, the water drained Oft to
the sea, three or four miles away from
the city of Long Beach. With the wa
ter in the east fork, however, the drain
age of the river las been sweeping to
the very streets of Long Beach, and in
the past two or three years consld-
cradle property has been ruined by the
deluge.
A report from the committee yester-
day was to the effect that in the west
fork, the proper channel had been al
lowed to fill in with waste and dirt, so
that it was almost impossible for the
stream to retain the channel while the
shrubs and trees growing In the banks
have added to the poor condition Of
. the river bed.
1t is proposed to wall up portions Of
the banks tow ..rd the sea, where the
water runs swiftest in the rainy sea-
son. At every turn of the stream, where
the waters have heretofore inundated
alfalfa fields and ruined the crops,
strong levees are to be built and the
brush and scrub cut away. Retaining
Walls Will Help IlOlu tlic .ItlIdCIOEy
stream for the greater part Of the way,
while the bed of the west fork will be
widened to sixty feet and deepened to
ten. A dam will be built across theI
divide to the east fork.
Subscribe $1,000
This work will be begun Immediately
by the surveying party. A thousand dol
lar fund was subscribed yesterday by
citizens of Long Beach to pay the ex-
penses Of the surveying trip, and asl
soon as a map has been made of the
work, the engineers will begin the diff
ficult task of tucking the river in its
bed.
The Los Angeles river while rarely
seen by even the citizens of Los An
geles, is considered a nuisance during
the winter months when it carries off
the great rains of the hill lands. The San
Gabriel and Los Angeles rivers vie with
each other during the winter months
in destroying property. The San Ga
briel has spread itself year to year, and
about year ago the same sort of prop
ostion was made by property owners
of the San Gabriel valley, who asked
the extra assessment in hope of build
ing a channel where the river could be
kept.
San Gabriel UnmanageabIe
The plan was started, but was later
abandoned when it was found that the
stream could not be mastered by even
a channel formation.
So recently levee district has been
established for the San Gabriel, and it
will run between two granite walls
hereafter, and the farms will be safe
from the waters wanderings.
1t is not thought necessary in the case
of the Los Angeles river to use the
levees. and with the two rivers Sc
curely bottled up in the channels where
they belong, the ranchers will again
feel safe.