Dominguez Channel
Location
CountySouthern Los Angeles County
StateCalifornia
CountryUnited States
Physical characteristics
SourceLocal drainage system
 • locationHawthorne
MouthSan Pedro Bay, Pacific Ocean
 • location
Wilmington at East Basin, Port of Los Angeles
Basin sizeDominguez Watershed
133 sq mi (340 km2)

Dominguez Channel is a 15.7-mile-long (25.3 km)[1] river in southern Los Angeles County, California, in the center of the Dominguez Watershed of 133 square miles (340 km2).[2]

The watershed area is 96% developed and largely residential. Subsurface storm drain tributaries and open flood control channels flow into the channel.[3] The channel originally was named after a racial slur but was changed in 1938.[4]

Course

The stream begins just south of 116th Street in Hawthorne and flows through El Camino Village, Gardena, Alondra Park, Torrance, Harbor Gateway, Carson,[5] and Wilmington, and empties into the East Basin of the Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro Bay on the Pacific Ocean.[6] There is a public community bicycle path with signage and native plant landscaping built atop the Dominguez River levee for several miles in the upper reach of the river in Hawthorne and El Camino Village and again in the lower reach of the river between Gardena and Carson, with several miles of the bicycle route in Torrance. There is a gap in the middle stretch, as well as in Carson, Torrance, and Wilmington through the oil refinery to the terminus of the levee at the ocean harbor. Lower Dominguez Channel, for the last few miles before reaching the ocean harbor, becomes an estuary mixing freshwater and ocean water together, overlying a wetland soil between uncemented boulder levees that serves as wildlife habitat and wildflower habitat for migratory native birds and native wetland vegetation.

Incidents

In 1941, the channel and surrounding wetlands caught fire, sparked by firefighters burning oil seepage from a quake-damaged pipeline.[4] The channel suffered frequent flooding until it was lined with rocks in the 1960s.[4]

In October 2021, the channel had a pollution event that caused a release of hydrogen sulfide into the air, sickening and forcing evacuation of residents in the city of Carson, as well as Gardena, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and Wilmington and other parts of Los Angeles County.[7] A warehouse fire led to the accidental release of ethanol used for hand sanitizer, which killed vegetation in the channel which rapidly decayed and released hydrogen sulfide. The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued notices of violation to four companies connected to the warehouse in question.[8]

The warehouse was owned by Artnaturals, a cosmetics company that had not made hand sanitizer before the COVID-19 pandemic, but began making it due to the surge in demand for the product. It caught fire on September 30, 2021. Water sprayed by firefighters flushed sanitizer and other chemicals into the Dominguez channel.[4]

The issue was addressed by pumping oxygen into the channel, because hydrogen sulfide is produced in unoxygenated environments.[5] During the initial two months, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works paid for more than 3,000 people to move into hotels who were experiencing symptoms and also provided 27,000 air purifiers to homes to mitigate the powerful odor.[9]

In December of 2021 and January of 2022, a release of untreated sewage into Dominguez Channel prompted five beaches to close. The spill began after a concrete pipe in Carson collapsed.[10] The pipe was 60 years old, and was due to be replaced in less than a year. It had been stressed by the buildup of Sulfuric acid, and the previous week's rainfall.[11]

Crossings

Crossings (bridges) over Dominguez River from the mouth upstream to the source, includes 6 railroad bridges, 23 public streets, several private roads inside oil refinery properties, 2 freeways, 2 state highways, and 2 parking lots (one of which is at a California community college). The year built of the bridge are within parentheses behind the name of the bridge are listed below:[12]

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 16, 2011
  2. ↑ Hutchings, Kristy (April 21, 2022). "Carson, LA County seeking Dominguez Channel restoration study". The Daily Breeze. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Dominguez Watershed Current Conditions". Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "A massive fire unleashed a flood of toxic runoff, triggering an environmental disaster". Los Angeles Times. March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Branson-Potts, Hailey; Campa, Andrew J. (October 16, 2021). "'Stinky City': Anger grows in Carson as noxious smell sickens residents, eludes solution". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  6. ↑ Gnerre, Sam (November 8, 2021). "South Bay History: Dominguez Channel changed the face of a large swath of South Bay/Harbor Area". Daily Breeze. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Dominguez Channel Odor Event". South Coast AQMD. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Smell that sickened Carson residents was likely caused by warehouse fire, officials say". www.msn.com. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  9. ↑ Gammon, Katharine (December 7, 2021). "California officials determine cause of city's 'stench of death'". The Guardian. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  10. ↑ Medina, Eduardo (January 1, 2022). "Beaches Closed After 7 Million Gallons of Sewage Spill in Los Angeles County". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  11. ↑ Rainey, James (January 2, 2022). "Sewer line in Carson that failed, forcing beach closures in two counties, was near replacement". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  12. ↑ "National Bridge Inventory Database". Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2009.

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