CULVER CITY : City, in Effort to Aid Coastal Program, Seeks Volunteers for Creek Cleanup

City officials are asking Westsiders to pitch in on Sept. 17 to help clean up Ballona Creek, one of the Los Angeles area’s major sources of ocean pollution.

The event will mark the beginning of a new, twice yearly effort by Culver City to aid the Heal the Bay environmental group’s coastal cleanup program. The next Ballona Creek cleanup will occur in April.

The problem of pollution in Santa Monica Bay cannot be resolved without first cleaning up Ballona Creek, said Joan Satt, Culver City’s recycling coordinator.

The creek serves as a gigantic gutter, draining 126 square miles of storm-water runoff between Downtown Los Angeles and the coast. Among the pollutants and debris that can be found in it are chemicals, oils, yard waste, shopping carts and tires.

The cement-lined creek, which runs from the Mid-City district to Marina del Rey, is fed by more than 100,000 street gutters and 315 miles of drainage channels.

Volunteers--Satt said she is expecting about 200--are asked to meet at 8:30 a.m. in Lindberg Park. They will work in teams, picking up debris along the bike path and through the lower portions of the creek. To register and to receive more information about the cleanup, call (310) 280-5950 or (213) 936-1340.