Ballona Wetlands Water Quality: Present Conditions to Future Possibilities

By John H. Dorsey

Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science

Loyola Marymount University

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

4275 BOELTER HALL

11:00 to 12:00 PM

The Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, owned by the State of California and managed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), covers 577 acres, and is the largest remaining saltwater marsh system in Los Angeles County. Much of this area is degraded upland habitat due to decades of human activities, with <3% receiving tidal flows. The results of water quality investigations will be presented showing that despite the BWER’s degraded condition, loads of fecal indicator bacteria entering the wetlands from the adjacent Ballona Estuary are significantly reduced. Planning now is underway by the DWF to restore the wetland to a more functional system. The four alternative plans in the recently released draft EIR will be discuss with relation to providing more tidal habitat, thus increasing water purification along with other ecosystem services provided by the wetlands.

John Dorsey received his B.S. in Marine Biology (1972), M.S. in Biology (1975) from California State University, Long Beach, Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in Zoology (1982), and is a Board Certified Environmental Scientist (AAEES) through the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. Presently he is a Professor at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, in the Department of Civil Engineering & Environmental Science where he teaches courses in environmental, biological and marine sciences. Also at LMU, he is a Senior Science Fellow with the Center for Urban Resilience (CURes). Prior to LMU, he worked as a marine biologist for the City of Los Angeles (1983-2002), focusing on marine monitoring in Santa Monica Bay and storm water management. John sits on numerous local and state technical committees dealing with water quality issues and policy, and wetland restoration. He is past-president of the Southern California Academy of Science where he remains an active member of their Board of Directors and Research Training Program for high school students. He conducts research on the dynamics of fecal indicator bacteria in coastal waters and wetlands, wetland biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the efficiency of water infiltration and pollutant removal in biofiltration systems. He has numerous publications in these fields and marine science. John’s passion for good water quality is natural — he is an avid surfer, so most days he can be found at dawn surfing at El Porto near his home and LMU’s campus.