In March 2019, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion directing Los Angeles County Public Works to take steps to address trash in Ballona Creek as a high priority. Subsequently, The Ocean Cleanup approached Public Works with a unique partnership opportunity to deploy a trash collection device known as the Interceptor™ for the first time in the United States.

After many conference calls that linked people around the world across varying time zones and a site visit to Los Angeles, Ballona Creek was recommended as a good fit for implementation of a pilot project to test the efficacy of the Interceptor™ within rivers. With the support of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, a partnership agreement was signed between the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and The Ocean Cleanup in November 2019 to implement a pilot project in Ballona Creek to test the efficiency of the Interceptor™ system in capturing floating plastics and other trash in Ballona Creek.

The Pilot Project built upon the County’s efforts to prevent trash from entering our waterways and the Flood Control District’s efforts to capture trash in and along them. In October 2022, Los Angeles County Public Works deployed Interceptor™ 007 at the mouth of Ballona Creek as part of the Ballona Creek Trash Interceptor™ Pilot Project, marking the first deployment of an Interceptor™ in North America. The purpose of the Pilot was to evaluate the feasibility of the Interceptor™ as a method of trash capture in Ballona Creek. During the Pilot, Interceptor™ 007 prevented over 250,000 pounds (125 tons) of trash and debris from reaching the Pacific Ocean and local beaches. The amount of trash and debris captured was over twice the anticipated amount of approximately 60 tons, which was based on historical trash capture in Ballona Creek.