UBLIC HEARING: Director of Development ... - City of Glendale

4. 3. Water (Hydrology)
partIcIpates in the National Flood Insurance Administration program through the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA has identified and mapped areas which are
at risk due to periodic flooding. Areas within the Redevelopment Area identified as being
within the designated lOO-year flood zone are the Los Angeles Flood Control Channel and the
Verdugo Wash. The Redevelopment Plan includes construction of capital improvements which
are expected to reduce flooding.
Build-out of the Redevelopment Plan would result in less than significant flooding
impacts. The only areas within the Redevelopment Area that are within the lOO-year flood zone
are the Los Angeles River and the Verdugo Wash channels.
Surface/Groundwater Resources. The Program EIR defines significant surface/
groundwater resources impacts as follows: 17
"Impacts to surface/groundwater resources are significant if the project will
substantially degrade water quality to levels below levels acceptable to the
Regional Water Quality Control Board."
There are no dependable surface water sources in the City of Glendale and the
Redevelopment Area has limited groundwater resources. However, the City does use
groundwater supplied from wells within the Redevelopment Area for domestic purposes. A
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remedial investigation ofthe San Fernando Basin,
an aquifer which underlies the City of Glendale, was completed for the purpose of identifying
groundwater contamination. 18 Through the use of groundwater monitoring wells it was
determined that contamination in the groundwater could cause a significant risk to human health
if the water was consumed without treatment. The largest quantities of these contaminants were
found in current or previous industrial areas and has reduced the City of Glendale's ability to
produce water from one of the two wells that the City utilizes for drinking water purposes,
although only ten percent of the City's potable water supply comes from the ground. The other
well that the City utilizes is not within the contamination area. The EPA is in the process of
implementing a Superfund treatment program of the groundwater in the San Fernando Basin so
that it can again be used for consumption. 19 As part of this remediation program, the EPA
has proposed use of three wells on the project site for extraction purposes. With
implementation of the mitigation measures found in the Program EIR, the Redevelopment Plan
17 Program EIR. Final EIR Volume, page 3.3-2.
18 Ibid.
19 City of Glendale Depanmenr of Public Services, Will Wilson, telephone conversation, February 11, 1996.
Planning Consullants Resean:h
Glendale Redevelopment Agency
Page 37
DreamWorks Animation Campus Addendwn ErR
June 1996