COMMERCE — Ecological concerns about the proposed San Gabriel River Discovery Center will be addressed in environmental impact reports expected this fall, according to officials of the joint authority planning the $27 million project on 11 acres of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, 1000 Durfee Road, in South El Monte.

The comments came from Sam Pedroza, chairman of the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority and representing the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts in Whittier; and Belinda Faustinos, executive director of the San Gabriel Rivers and Mountains Conservancy in Azusa.

They are among the regional water and conservation agencies supporting the plan, conceived in 2000 by the Upper San Gabriel Water Authority, which is part of the joint powers group along with the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department, the Central Municipal Basin Water District based in Commerce, and the regional Metropolitan Water District.

Pedroza and Faustino fielded comments from several groups opposed to or concerned about the project at a meeting April 23 at the Central Basin Municipal Water District headquarters here.

Groups represented included Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, the Whittier Audobon Society, the California Native Plant Society and the Sierra Club.

Proposed is an 18,230-square-foot science museum on the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, a 70-year-old, 416-acre wetland and wildlife sanctuary along the San Gabriel River between Montebello and Puente Hills.

But the plan has been criticized by a group of area residents who are citing financial problems with similar large museums in the Los Angeles area.
Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area say the museum is a waste of money and would spoil the existing natural display.

The new building would replace the current 1,200-square-foot Nature Center across from South El Monte High School and a 35-space parking lot with a larger building containing a 150-seat conference center, indoor water displays, a false bottom wetland, a water retention basin for a 150-space parking lot and a 1,300-square-foot “green classroom” for students outside the new center.

Supporters say the new center will create a gateway to a 17-mile long stretch of parks and green space connecting 10 cities along the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel rivers.

They say some 24,000 students a year could be bused to the site to learn ecology and showcase “green technology,” including a 7,000-square-foot model of the San Gabriel River, complete with flowing water.

Also proposed is a Native American settlement, an outdoor sunken amphitheater, a picnic area and improved trails.

The authority plans to destroy nature to teach children the value of it, say the Friends group in a pamphlet which states more than 40 acres could eventually be affected.

The first week of April brought reports that the never-opened $52-million Children’s Museum of Los Angeles, located in the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in the San Fernando Valley, is preparing for chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation, said Friends leader Jim Odling of East Los Angeles, who attended the Commerce meeting.

Construction costs of another failed project, the Center for Water Education in Hemet, were paid largely by customers of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, he said.

“The Discovery Center Authority is taking a huge risk in pursuing this project,” Odling said.

The San Gabriel River Discovery Center, a decade in development, has yet to break ground and is only about a third of the way to its $27-million fundraising goal for construction alone.

All contributions have come solely from county and state agencies and from three regional water districts, Odling said.

“With the recent sales tax increase and more tax increases on the way in California, the Discovery Center Authority shouldn’t be gambling taxpayer and rate-payer dollars on a big-ticket science museum that might never even open its doors,” he added.

Friends member Michael Barba of Pico Rivera voiced concern about a planned 1,300-square-foot outdoor water shed exhibit which is similar to one in the Long Beach Aquarium some 25 miles away.

Odling, who has lived near the current center for some 21 years and has been a docent at the nature center for four years, said the expansion will disturb some 300 bird species, some of them endangered.

The green parking lot is a foraging area for hawks and owls and the project will cause the removal of some 50 trees, he added.

Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area and neighboring lands as open space corridors.

Its members are from throughout the Southeast area including Whittier, Pico Rivera, Montebello, Downey, La Mirada and Alhambra.