Ballona Creek

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As seen from Baldwin Hills, the eastern end of Ballona creek near La Cienega Boulevard.

Duck hunting on the Ballona lowlands, 1890.

Near its end, Ballona Creek (left) runs adjacent to Marina del Rey before both empty into the Santa Monica Bay.

Ballona Creek is an approximately nine-mile-long waterway in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, that drains the Los Angeles basin, from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, the Harbor Freeway (110) on the east, and the Baldwin Hills on the south. It flows through Culver City and the Del Rey district before emptying into Santa Monica Bay between the Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey districts.[1]

The Ballona Creek watershed totals about 130 square miles. Its land use consists of 64% residential, 8% commercial, 4% industrial, and 17% open space. The major tributaries to the Ballona Creek include Centinela Creek, Sepulveda Canyon Channel and Benedict Canyon Channel; most of the creek's minor tributaries have been obliterated by development or paved over. Now completely channeled, the creek is designed to discharge to Santa Monica Bay approximately 71,400 cubic feet per second from a 50-year frequency storm event. [2]

At the time of Spanish settlement, the Los Angeles River turned to the west just south of present-day Bunker Hill, joining Ballona Creek just to the west of its current channel. However, during a major flood in 1825, the Los Angeles River's course changed to its present channel, and Ballona Creek became a completely distinct waterway [3]. Much of the above-ground section of the creek was lined with concrete as part of the flood-control project undertaken by the United States Army Corps of Engineers following the Los Angeles Flood of 1938. (See Coastal Conservancy report. July 16, 2007, page 2.)