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LOS ANGELES RIVER WATERSHED
The Los Angeles River Watershed covers an area of approximately 834 square miles (528 acres) and is located in the coastal plain of the Los Angeles Basin, and includes the San Fernando Valley, and portions of the San Gabriel Valley. The watershed includes 40 Cities, unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and Caltrans. Its boundaries are defined by the Santa Monica Mountains to the north and west, the San Gabriel Mountains to the north and east, and the Los Angeles Coastal Plain to the south. The headwaters of the Los Angeles River are mostly classified as forest and include the Angeles National Forest in the Santa Monica, Santa Susana, and San Gabriel Mountains, which comprise approximately 200 square miles of the watershed. The more urban uses are found in the lower portions of the watershed.
The Los Angeles River flows as an open channel for 55 miles from the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles through the San Fernando Valley, Burbank, Glendale, Central Los Angeles, Vernon, Maywood, Commerce, Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, South Gate, Lynwood, Paramount, Compton, and Long Beach, reaching the Long Beach Harbor at its end. The River is basically a concrete channel for most of its length, with the exception of two soft-bottom reaches (the 3.1-mile soft-bottom portion running adjacent to Los Angeles and Glendale known as the Glendale Narrows and the 2.4-mile portion in the Sepulveda Basin Recreational area behind the Sepulveda Dam) and is fed by a complex underground network of storm drains and surface network of tributaries. Tributaries of the River include Bell Creek, Calabasas Creek, Browns Canyon Wash, Aliso Canyon Wash, Caballero Creek, Bull Creek, Tujunga Wash, Burbank Western Channel, Verdugo Wash, Sycamore Wash, Arroyo Seco, Rio Hondo, Compton Creek, and numerous other storm drains. The River meets the Estuary at Willow Street, where concrete is replaced by grouted riprap side slopes and an earth bottom.
Additional information on the Los Angeles River Watershed can be found under the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Watershed Management Initiative Program.
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