Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
: ''Canal de Domínguez'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data The National Map , accessed March 16, 2011 stream in southern
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...
, in the center of the Dominguez Watershed of .
The watershed area is 96 percent developed and largely residential. Subsurface
storm drain
A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), highway drain, surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from i ...
tributaries and open flood control channels flow into the channel. The channel originally was named after a racial slur but was changed to Laguna de Los Dominguez in 1938.
Harbor Gateway
The Harbor Gateway, sometimes informally known as the L.A. Strip due to its shape, is a in the South Bay and Los Angeles Harbor Region, in the southern part of the City of Los Angeles. The neighborhood is narrow and long, running along a nor ...
, Carson, and Wilmington, and empties into the East Basin of the
Port of Los Angeles
The Port of Los Angeles is a seaport managed by the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a unit of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles. It occupies of land and water with of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. Promoted as "Amer ...
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
. There is a public community bicycle path with signage and native plant landscaping built atop the Dominguez River levee for several miles in the upper reach of the river in Hawthorne and El Camino Village and again in the lower reach of the river between Gardena and Carson, with several miles of the bicycle route in Torrance. There is a gap in the middle stretch, as well as in Carson, Torrance, and Wilmington through the
oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...
to the terminus of the levee at the ocean harbor. Lower Dominguez Channel, for the last few miles before reaching the ocean harbor, becomes an
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...
mixing freshwater and ocean water together, overlying a wetland soil between uncemented boulder levees that serves as wildlife habitat and wildflower habitat for migratory native birds and native wetland vegetation.
Incidents
In 1941, the channel and surrounding wetlands caught fire, sparked by firefighters burning oil seepage from a quake-damaged pipeline. The channel suffered frequent flooding until it was lined with rocks in the 1960s.
In October 2021, the channel had a pollution event that caused a release of
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is toxic, corrosive, and flammable. Trace amounts in ambient atmosphere have a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. Swedish chemist ...
into the air, sickening and forcing evacuation of residents in the city of Carson, as well as Gardena,
Long Beach
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
,
Redondo Beach
Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Mo ...
, Torrance and Wilmington and other parts of Los Angeles County. A warehouse fire led to the accidental release of ethanol used for hand sanitizer, which killed vegetation in the channel which rapidly decayed and released hydrogen sulfide. The
South Coast Air Quality Management District
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, also using the acronym South Coast (AQMD), formed in 1976, is the air pollution agency responsible for regulating stationary sources of air pollution in the South Coast Air Basin and the Coachel ...
issued notices of violation to four companies connected to the warehouse in question.
The warehouse was owned by Artnaturals, a cosmetics company that had not made hand sanitizer before the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, but began making it due to the surge in demand for the product. It caught fire on September 30, 2021. Water sprayed by firefighters flushed sanitizer and other chemicals into the Dominguez channel.
The issue was addressed by pumping oxygen into the channel, because hydrogen sulfide is produced in unoxygenated environments. During the initial two months, the
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LACDPW) is responsible for the construction and operation of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County's roads, building code, building safety, Sewage collection and disposal, sewerage, an ...
paid for more than 3,000 people to move into hotels who were experiencing symptoms and also provided 27,000 air purifiers to homes to mitigate the powerful odor.
In December 2021 and January 2022, a release of untreated sewage into Dominguez Channel prompted five beaches to close. The spill began after a concrete pipe in Carson collapsed. The pipe was 60 years old, and was due to be replaced in less than a year. It had been stressed by the buildup of
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, ...
, and the previous week's rainfall.
Crossings
Crossings (bridges) over Dominguez River from the mouth upstream to the source, includes six railroad bridges, 23 public streets, several private roads inside oil refinery properties, two freeways, two state highways, and two parking lots (one of which is at a California community college). The year built of the bridge are within parentheses behind the name of the bridge are listed below:
* Railroad
* North Henry Ford Avenue (2002)
* Railroad
* East Anaheim Street (1997)
* Railroad
* - East Pacific Coast Highway (1948)
* East
Sepulveda Boulevard
Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda ...
(1959)
* Alameda Street (1959)
* Railroad
* Private roads
* East 223rd Street & Wilmington Avenue (1963)
* Railroad
* - San Diego Freeway (1962)
* East Carson Street (1959)
* East 213th Street (1961)
*
Avalon Boulevard
Avalon Boulevard is a north-south street in Los Angeles County.
Geography
Avalon Boulevard emerges southward as a fifth roadbed out of the intersection of San Pedro Street and Jefferson Boulevard. It passes through the southern Los Angeles ...
(1962)
* East Del Almo Boulevard
* South Main Street (1961)
* South
Figueroa Street
Figueroa Street is a major north-south street in Los Angeles County, California, spanning from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington, Los Angeles, Wilmington north to Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, Eagle Rock. A short, unconnected continuation of ...
(1963)
* West 190th Street (1966)
* - Harbor Freeway (1960 and 1985; connectors included)
* West 182nd Street (1964)
* South
Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north–south streets in City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, California. With a length of , is the third longest of the north–south thoroughfares in the region. For most of its length be ...
(1958)
* Normandie Avenue (1958)
* South Western Avenue (1960)
* - Artesia Boulevard (1958)
* Gramercy Place (1959)
* Van Ness Avenue (1960)
*
Crenshaw Boulevard
Crenshaw Boulevard is a north–south thoroughfare that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a route in the west-central part of Los Angeles, California, United States.
The street extends between Wilshire Boulevard in Mid-W ...
(1960)
* Cherry Avenue (1960)
* West Redondo Beach Boulevard (1960)
* Parking lot of
El Camino College
El Camino College (Elco or ECC) is a public community college in Los Angeles County, California. Most of it is in Alondra Park,Crenshaw Station Park & Ride (1994)
* Ramps to Interstate 105
* -
Glenn Anderson
Glenn Chris Anderson (born October 2, 1960) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. Anders ...