Save San Pascual Park – Restore the Arroyo Seco!

Pasadena and South Pasadena have stirred up a hornet's nest with the so-called "Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project." Residents of the San Pascual neighborhood, near the intersection of Pasadena, South Pasadena and Los Angeles, have filed a lawsuit (Solis v. Pasadena, et al.) to protest damage to their beloved San Pascual Park to irrigate a golf course in South Pasadena.

The project, which is a joint project of Pasadena and South Pasadena, has two related components: 1) the San Rafael Creek Treatment program in Pasadena and the San Pascual diversion project in South Pasadena. A key part of the program would be located in San Pascual Park in the City of Los Angeles.

On Monday, November 24, 2024 the Pasadena City Council will consider in closed session the lawsuit filed by Clara Solis and the Save San Pascual group demanding a full Environmental Impact Report.

The Save San Pascual Park group has raised some serious questions about the project that proponents call a "water reuse" program to clean up the Arroyo Seco stream with pipes and plumbing. Many of the concerns were raised during an inadequate community outreach and environmental review process but were not addressed in the "official" Mitigated Declaration document. Pasadena staff slipped project approval past the Pasadena City Council in June on the consent agenda without any discussion.

Pasadena Council members were unaware that a key part of the project will be in a Los Angeles city park, or that the water rights are problematic, or that the land is sacred to indigenous people.

The biggest failure of the project, though, is that it does not respect the natural character of the Arroyo Seco or fit it into an integrated approach to enhancing the stream and watershed to meet the challenges of dwindlng water supplies and climate change. Restoring the Arroyo Seco is key to saving the endangered Southern Steelhead.