Hansen Dam’s Comeback Moves Slowly : Recreation: Tons of silt have been hauled off, but restoration of the once-popular lake remains years away.

More than half of the 30 million tons of silt, sand and gravel that flowed down from the mountains into the Hansen Dam flood control basin during heavy rainstorms over several decades--choking to death a popular lake--have been removed.

But as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepares to mark the 50th birthday of the towering dam and reservoir it built in 1940, the long-awaited restoration of the sprawling lake and recreation area that 20 years ago attracted thousands of swimmers, boaters and picnickers is still years away.

Almost $2 million in state and federal funds was allocated last year toward rebuilding the east San Fernando Valley’s most popular recreation spot, and corps officials say they are optimistic about the lake’s restoration.

Another source of revenue has been the removal of debris from the 1,540-acre basin under a pilot program that allows the government and private industry to profit. That arrangement has raised more than $800,000 earmarked for park restoration, and that amount is expected to double during the next five years of excavation.

The removal of debris has opened up equestrian trails at the dam area, but a project to rebuild other facilities is behind schedule. The Corps was to have issued a draft proposal, which probably will include plans for a 57-acre wildlife preserve, picnic areas, more riding trails and other recreation uses, in addition to some kind of lake, in May. But it’s been delayed.

“They’re revising their time frame now,” Corps spokeswoman Mary O’Keefe said of Hansen Dam project coordinators. “They are a month to a month and a half behind schedule.”

But years of government inaction has caused community leaders to remain skeptical about the corps’ commitment to replacing the lake.

“I think the Corps of Engineers would like to see a flood control basin here and nothing else,” said Lewis Snow, president of the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn. “We’ve been living with the promises for quite a while. It comes to a time when the Army corps is going to have to either fish or cut bait. If by the end of June that draft master plan is not ready, there are going to be some mighty angry people around here.”

Snow and his neighbors bristle when they talk about plans going forward on an ambitious $20-million project for new recreation facilities, including a lake, in the Sepulveda Basin near affluent Encino. Plans there call for a 26-acre lake with a fishing cove, rowboat facilities and a wildlife pond surrounded by landscaped parkland.

“They notice us when it comes time to finding a place to put things like dumps, prisons and drug rehabilitation centers,” Snow said. “But when it comes to recreational facilities, the northeast Valley is about the last place they consider.”

Like Hansen Dam, Sepulveda Basin is owned by the corps and the land is leased by the city of Los Angeles for recreational purposes. Even though Hansen Dam’s lake was closed nearly a decade ago, the city continues to maintain a golf course, picnic facilities and athletic fields there.

The 2-mile-long, 97-foot-high Hansen Dam was built in 1940 to control floodwaters and silt that flow down the Big and Little Tujunga Canyon stream channels during heavy rainfalls. The lake was formed when “burrow pits” or holes that were excavated to provide gravel to build the dam filled up with water.

In 1949, the city opened the 130-acre Holiday Lake below the dam. The parks department built a sandy beach and a boat ramp, cordoned off a shallow section of water for swimming and stocked the lake with trout. A grassy picnic area with barbecue facilities was created nearby.

For 25 years, Hansen Dam and the surrounding neighborhood thrived. Developers built homes on hills near the lake and gave the community a new name--Lake View Terrace. Private concessionaires operated a children’s petting zoo, train and pony rides at the park. On warm weekend days, the 400-space parking lot would be jammed with cars.

“It was a wonderful place to go as a kid,” Snow said. “I remember just swimming and swimming there all day long. It was such fun.”

But in 1969, Los Angeles County had some of the worst flooding in its history. Two bridges near the dam at Foothill Boulevard and Wentworth Street collapsed and seven homes in Big Tujunga Canyon were washed away.

Debris and sediment reduced the once 20- to 30-foot-deep lake to a depth of four feet in some places and park officials banned motorboating. The lake managed to stay open during the 1970s but by 1975 it was reduced to about 80 acres.

A forest fire and heavy rain in the winter of 1981 and the spring of 1982 brought 5 million to 10 million tons of sediment into the basin and the lake shrank to less than 30 acres, according to corps documents. That summer the swimming beach was closed because the water had become stagnant and unhealthy.

“The lake really was only meant to survive for 50 years,” said Terry Wotherspoon, a corps engineer. “People don’t really understand that. The lake was expected to fill up.”

But the lake filled up faster than had been anticipated. In 1981, the corps began to study ways to deal with the sediment, which was flowing into the lake at twice the rate expected and clogging the dam’s floodgates. Beginning in 1982, the Corps authorized private firms to dredge as much of the sediment as they could sell to construction firms.

That effort was quickly abandoned because of its cost and lack of progress, and Corps engineers awarded a five-year contract to one excavation firm. In 1984, that contract was won by Bill Blomgren, the owner of Channel and Basin Reclamation and a lifelong Sunland resident.

“I want to see my grandchildren swim in that lake,” he said. “I want to see that lake back there as quickly as possible.”

Blomgren and three subcontractors have removed more than triple the 5.4 million tons of debris that their contract required and corps officials said they expect to renew the contract for another five years. Blomgren said he expects to finish the project in three years, however.

At the same time, Wotherspoon said, Blomgren has proved that rather than paying several million dollars to have the sediment removed, the government can receive royalties from such an operation.

“It’s a unique program nationwide,” Wotherspoon said. “We plan to do the same thing at Santa Fe Dam” in the San Gabriel Valley. “The contract will be awarded not to the lowest bidder but to the firm that will pay the government the highest royalty.”

So far, Wotherspoon said, Blomgren has paid the government $600,000 in royalties. A bill by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), a leading proponent of lake restoration, allowed the money to go into a trust fund for recreational improvements in the area.

Snow was among residents who served last year on an advisory committee Berman appointed to help decide how the money should be spent. The consensus was that restoration of the lake was the residents’ top priority.

Snow, community activist and former City Council candidate Jules Bagneris III and other community leaders see the lake as the cornerstone of the area’s renaissance.

“The lake is so very, very important to this community,” Snow said. “I can directly relate its closing to a downturn in the community. Property values have declined. My house in another community, say Woodland Hills, would be worth half again as much as it is here.

“Our kids here lost the only recreational facility they had. Crime started to go up. We lost the area’s only bank, pharmacy and variety store.”

Now, he said, community leaders are working to turn things around. They are counting on the lake to draw businesses back into the community.

“Hansen Dam is the key to making this area the jewel of the Valley,” Bagneris said. “It will have significant impact here. We need community renewal.”

Bagneris said he has seen three plans for lakes ranging in size from eight acres to 85 acres. But he believes the new lake should be larger and said he is working on an alternate plan for a 200-acre facility.

Whatever plan is chosen, it will be several years before a lake can be built. Corps and city officials said problems such as how to bring water in to fill the lake and funds for its maintenance have yet to be solved.

“It’s going to take about $15 million to get the lake back in operation,” said Frank Catania of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department. “I’m afraid it may be far in the future.”

Although the revival of the lake remains far off, corps officials estimated that other new recreational facilities at the dam could be ready for use in late 1992 and are planning a celebration of some kind to mark the dam’s birthday late this summer.