On March 19, 2019, the Board of Supervisors passed a motion directing Public Works to take steps to address trash in Ballona Creek as a high priority. Subsequently, The Ocean Cleanup, an international charitable organization, 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 in a pilot project that will span approximately two storm seasons.

The Ocean Cleanup’s primary goal is to rid the world’s oceans of plastics and other debris. The Ocean Cleanup announced its river initiative on October 26, 2019, with the goal of implementing a scalable solution for automated trash collection in 1,000 river systems within 5 years to stop the outflow of plastics to the world’s oceans. 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 on November 15, 2019 to implement a pilot project in Ballona Creek. This pilot project builds upon the County’s current efforts to collect and prevent trash from entering our waterways.

In addition to providing The Interceptor™ for the pilot period, The Ocean Cleanup has provided monitoring equipment to help characterize the anticipated success of the system. Deployment and use of The Interceptor™ will help to achieve the goals set by the Board of Supervisors, Public Works, and The Ocean Cleanup.

The anticipated benefits of this extraordinary public-private partnership between the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and The Ocean Cleanup will include improved trash capture efficacy, automation of operations, and a reduction in maintenance time and cost. The Ballona Creek Trash Interceptor™ Pilot Project will allow for a direct way to not only address the issue of trash within Ballona Creek, but also implement an already tested scalable worldwide solution. The Ocean Cleanup has already deployed Interceptors™ in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Dominican Republic.

The Ballona Creek Trash Interceptor Pilot Project is one of various projects with the goal of reducing trash in Ballona Creek. The Interceptor is located near the mouth of Ballona Creek downstream of the Pacific Avenue Bridge. In order to achieve maximum capture, we will be alternating between a one-boom and two-boom configuration.

The booms are intended to guide trash towards The Interceptor’s™ centralized conveyor belt. Booms will be placed in a v-shape configuration only during rain events when flows are expected to carry trash down the creek. Outside of these events, only one boom will be deployed, allowing for continued access to the creek.