Environment Los Angeles

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that plans for the giant Playa Vista development do not violate the Endangered Species Act. In January, several environmental groups sued the corps, charging that the developer's plans to build a 1,000-acre residential and commercial complex in the Ballona Wetlands area would harm 19 species of birds and animals.

Los Angeles Zoo elephants Gita and Ruby are among the most generous contributors to the Griffith Park Composting Facility--the first compost plant in the country, according to city officials, to use zoo waste in conjunction with treated human waste and green trimmings.

Four years ago, customers bought bagels, snacks, liquor and Mexican food at the Canoga Center. But the only signs of life now at the little strip mall, which sits vacant behind a 10-foot-high fence and razor wire, are the shining eyes of stray cats peering from dark doorways. Pigeons have claimed what remains of the Chatsworth Plating Co., a firm that Los Angeles County prosecutors allege poisoned the lot on Canoga Avenue.

Parking under shade trees does more than keep thighs from sticking to vinyl seats--it may curb pollution. The U.S. Forest Service will meet today) with the environmental group TreePeople and Los Angeles City Council staff members to discuss a recent study that suggests lowering vehicle temperatures with something as simple as shade slows gasoline evaporation from parked cars. "Parking lots are a wasteland," said Greg McPherson, the study's leader. "They're pollution hot spots.

Parking under shade trees does more than keep thighs from sticking to vinyl seats--it may curb pollution. The U.S. Forest Service meets today with the environmental group TreePeople and Los Angeles City Council staffers to discuss a recent study that suggests lowering vehicle temperatures with something as simple as shade slows gasoline evaporation from parked cars. "Parking lots are a wasteland," said Greg McPherson, the study's leader. "They're pollution hot spots.

Los Angeles city officials are gearing up to begin the hard planning of a state-of-the-art library and environmental resource center in Lake View Terrace. The City Council allocated $250,000 of Community Development Block Grant funds to the library department Tuesday, and agreed to accept a gift of architectural services from Henry Lenny Architects to put on paper what the community envisions for the center.

A proposal to remove Matilija Dam to save the endangered southern steelhead trout has gained favor with environmentalists, but a growing number of critics say it would be costly, complicated and potentially dangerous for the few remaining steelhead left in Southern California. A variety of scientists, government officials and two recent studies contend that there are cheaper and simpler ways of restoring the steelhead's habitat than spending millions to dismantle a 145-foot-tall dam.

This month's deadline for public comment on environmental reports for water-treatment plants proposed at Encino and Stone Canyon reservoirs will be extended by 30 days to allow the Department of Water and Power to develop alternatives, Los Angeles officials said Tuesday. City Councilman Mike Feuer said Tuesday after a meeting with DWP General Manager S.

Siding with environmentalists and against a major coal terminal at the Port of Los Angeles, air quality regulators decided Thursday that the facility must fulfill its promise to install two domes over piles of potentially hazardous petroleum coke. The South Coast Air Quality Management District notified the Los Angeles Export Terminal that the agency's staff has rejected the company's formal request to halt construction of the covers.

A federal judge left intact Monday his recent order halting work on 16.1 acres of wetlands on the sprawling Playa Vista project until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts a thorough review of environmental hazards. Judge Ronald S.W. Lew rebuffed bids by both sides in the long-running legal dispute over development of the 1,087-acre site near Marina del Rey.