Public Works Services Director Cranmer recently went on a field visit with County representatives to the Santa Anita Dam/Reservoir and the Santa Anita Debris Dam and Spreading grounds to get an update on several projects that will contribute to Arcadias safety and ground water use. The first project is the removal of sediment related to the Bobcat fire behind the Santa Anita Dam located up on Chantry Flats road. The sediment is removed from behind the Dam, deposited onto a conveyor belt that goes through a tunnel in the mountain, down through Arcadia Wilderness Park, and finally is deposited into the Santa Anita Spreading Grounds sediment stockpile area. Attached are several photos that show Pre and Post-Tropical Storm Hilary conditions and a current photo of the progress of removal. After the Dam is cleaned out there will be seismic retrofits completed and crucial upgrades that insure the safety operations of the Dam. The removal project is expected to be completed in 2025 barring any additional weather-related setbacks.
Additional details on both of the projects is provided below:
Santa Anita Reservoir Post Fire Emergency Restoration Project (Dam up on Chantry Flats)
• As of 10/24/2023:
o Total of 85,000 cubic yards of sediment has been removed from reservoir.
o Total of 64,000 cubic yards placed and compacted at the sediment placement.
o Average of 4,2000 cubic yards removed per day.
o Minimum sediment removal target for this year was 140,000 cubic yards. Because of the
Tropical Storm Hilary delays the County are anticipating only 100,000 cubic yards removed, but will continue to work as long as the dry weather holds.
Santa Anita Debris Dam Seismic Strengthening Project (Santa Anita Spreading Grounds)
• See attached for the Project Fact Sheet, which contains basic information about the project scope,
schedule, and budget. This project will create more room to store water in the debris basin so it could be spread into the spreading grounds for Arcadias ground water use.
WILDERNESS PARK UPDATE
The City of Arcadia is continuing to work with CalOES and FEMA to obtain funding for debris removal at Wilderness Park. The plan is for Arcadia to submit a project under the CalOES 2021 CDAA declaration for the removal of 18,830 Cubic Yards of debris. This amount of debris was documented in the debris estimate provided in 2021 to Cal OES. FEMA plans on completing a site inspection to document how much debris is currently at the park and will subtract 18,830 Cubic Yards from this quantity to determine the amount of debris that will be covered under FEMA declaration DR-4683. Both FEMA and CalOES have requested that the City of Arcadia
provide another City Engineer’s debris quantity estimate for the total amount of debris at the park to date and submit a project to the CRC by the end of the year.
It is important to note that the County is currently completing its sediment removal project and there is a conveyor belt that goes through Wilderness Park. The County will not complete the sediment removal until 2025. It will be challenging to conduct any debris removal until the County repairs the bridge at Wilderness Park and completes the sediment conveyor belt. These discussions will take place as we determine a plan for debris removal.