"We came across a grove of very large (trees), high and thick, from which flows a stream. The banks were grassy and covered with fragrant herbs and watercress. . . . We pitched camp near the water."
--Explorer Juan Crespi, observing La Ballona Creek, near present-day La Cienega Boulevard, in 1769
From its underground "headwaters" in the Mid-City district to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean near Marina del Rey, Ballona Creek is the most disparaged body of water in Los Angeles.
Transformed by public works projects spanning half a century, the 9.1-mile stream that Juan Crespi described in his journal meanders through residential neighborhoods, past grimy factories and beneath busy thoroughfares on its way to the sea.
Unlike graceful canals in Amsterdam and San Antonio, the concrete-lined Ballona serves as a gargantuan gutter, draining 126 square miles of storm-water runoff between Downtown Los Angeles and the coast.
In heavy rains, such as last week's, the creek pours up to 10 billion gallons of water a day into the ocean--enough to fill the Forum in Inglewood 33 times.
And the runoff, unfortunately, is not simply water. It's a toxic mix that includes oils from the vehicles we drive, household chemicals, yard waste, illegal and accidental spills from businesses and industrial plants--indeed anything that lands in any of more than 100,000 street gutters or enters the 315 miles of drainage channels that serve as the creek's tributaries.
A recent study by the American Oceans Campaign found significant levels of at least 50 toxic chemicals consistently present in the creek, including several carcinogens.
"We think that may be the tip of the iceberg," said Robert Sulnick, the environmental group's executive director, who says further chemical testing of the creek's contents is desperately needed.
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Ironically, much of the creek's negative public image stems largely from a problem that may no longer exist.
Nine times during the past seven years, partially treated sewage discharged into the creek by the city of Los Angeles led to much-publicized beach closures by county health officials. The largest of the spills--66 million gallons--occurred on a single day in 1992.
Last summer, after a false start the year before, the city finally placed into service a new sewer line that is expected to render major spills a thing of the past.
That's the good news. Environmentalists say that even with the sewer problem apparently solved, Ballona Creek remains the largest source of pollution for Santa Monica Bay.
Now, as federal, state and local officials grapple with how best to combat storm-water pollution in what has rapidly become a new frontier in the effort to clean up rivers, lakes and urban waterways, Ballona Creek again figures prominently.
"The creek is symptomatic of a national problem," said Mark Gold, staff biologist with Heal the Bay. The Santa Monica environmental group has made La Ballona a centerpiece in its call for more stringent water quality standards.
Despite its environmental shortcomings, Ballona still holds an allure for many.
Joggers and sweethearts stroll its banks at Culver City and Playa del Rey. Rowdy teen-agers claim its subterranean tributaries north of the Santa Monica Freeway as turf.
As unlikely as it may seem, there are even recreational users.
Fishermen cast from the Pacific Avenue Bridge at Playa del Rey despite warnings against eating anything caught there.
"The fish look pretty good to me," Michael Smith, a regular at the bridge, said on a recent afternoon, showing off half a dozen smelt he had reeled in.
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Not far upstream, where rowing teams from UCLA ply the murky waters for practice and competition, women's team coach Andrew Morrow appeared resigned.
"There's really no other place we can go," he explained. "It's a long commute to Castaic Lake."
Long before it became an urban drainage canal, the creek was a wild and scenic waterway.
The stream that Crespi observed in the 1760s was fed by natural springs and emanated from \o7 las cienagas \f7 (Spanish for "the swamps") near where present-day La Cienega Boulevard skirts the Los Angeles-Culver City border.
A great flood in 1815 caused the Los Angeles River to change its course near Downtown and flow into the ocean by way of Ballona Creek. The river switched back to its current course, which empties near Long Beach, in 1825.
The swamps remained, however, and La Ballona continued to figure in the area's development in other ways.
During the Civil War, the Union Army placed 1,500 soldiers along its banks east of the present-day San Diego Freeway to keep Confederate sympathizers in check.
In 1886, a real estate developer with backing from the Santa Fe Railroad promoted a plan to develop the estuary at Playa del Rey as a major seaport. Nothing happened, and by the time the idea resurfaced during World War I, ports at San Pedro and Long Beach made the notion of a Port Ballona seem impractical.
Then along came the movies.
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