Colorado Lagoon
Colorado Lagoon is a public park in the Alamitos Heights neighborhood of Long Beach, California. It takes its name from Colorado Street, which borders the park to the south. The park contains an lagoon, one of the only coastal salt marshes left on the West Coast.
Originally part of the Los Cerritos Wetlands, the lagoon was dredged in the 1920s. Construction projects and neglect made the lagoon very polluted, and locals nicknamed it "Polio Pond". In 2009, Los Angeles County began a project to remove contaminated sediment and protect the water from further pollution. The county completed the first phase in 2012 and is scheduled to finish the second phase in 2026 after many delays.
History
This area was a salt marsh in the Los Cerritos Wetlands, part of the San Gabriel River delta, until it was dredged in the 1920s to allow for more recreational activities. The park was formerly a part of Recreation Park, which the city bought in 1923 from the San Gabriel River Improvement Company. The lagoon originally opened up into Alamitos Bay, but a bulkhead and tide gates were built in 1932 that made Colorado Street able to cross the body of water. The tide gates allowed for the lagoon's water level to be adjusted for diving events. A large diving platform was installed and was used in the trials for Diving at the 1932 Summer Olympics. It continued to be used until its removal in the 1950s. The park became less popular for swimming in the 1960s after the channel emptying into Alamitos Bay was turned into a -long tunnel that was to be used for a canceled freeway. This caused the lagoon to become more polluted, leading to locals dubbing it "Polio Pond". In 1970, the site that the canceled freeway was to originally occupy was turned into Marina Vista Park.Water quality continued to decrease over the next thirty years, as the eleven storm drains emptied into the lagoon and the water was not drained as often. This deterioration continued until 2002, when the State of California designated the lagoon as an "impaired water body." The Friends of Colorado Lagoon was formed in 1998 to improve the water quality of the lagoon. The California Coastal Conservancy allocated some funds to conduct a study to see how effective and possible a restoration would be for the park in 2005. The organization also held educational programs in the Wetlands and Marine Science Education Center starting in 2006.
A restoration was approved in 2008, and the project's first phase began in 2009, under a state-funded grant. In October 2009, Los Angeles County additionally funded a project to divert 40% of stormwater that would have gone into the lagoon to Long Beach Marine Stadium. Called the Termino Storm Drain Project, it was completed in October 2011, costing $25 million. Another problem was the breakwater in San Pedro Bay, which traps some contamination. The California State Water Resources Control Board granted the city 5.1 million in 2011 to take sediment out, plant native species near the lagoon, remove invasive ones like cheeseweed, and install devices reducing pollution, amongst other upgrades.
The lagoon was officially reopened to the public on August 25, 2012, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. After the restoration, the lagoon's water quality improved drastically, as tests by Heal the Bay in 2014 revealed an A grade, as opposed to an F grade in 2007. Also in 2014, the American Society of Landscape Architects recognized Colorado Lagoon for its restoration. A construction project to link the lagoon with Marine Stadium was approved in 2019. It involved carving a channel through Marina Vista Park and would increase the biodiversity of species in the lagoon. This channel will also be used to replace the underground tunnel built in the 1960s. Construction began in 2020 when non-native trees were removed from the park, although the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions delayed any parts of the channel being built until December 2022. It was estimated to be completed in 2024, a change from its original ending date of 2022. In 2024, it was delayed again to 2025 and then to 2026.