Pacoima Wash

Pacoima Wash, 33 miles (53 km) long,[1] is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash, itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, California.

Pacoima Wash
Pacoima Wash in Panorama City
Location
Country	United States
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Pacoima Dam, California
• elevation	1,990 feet (610 m)
Mouth
• location	Tujunga Wash, California

There are actually two historical parts to the Pacoima Wash—the Pacoima Wash north of the METROLINK, and Pacoima Wash south of the METROLINK, an covered up, altered, and destroyed part.

The stream begins at Mount Gleason, 6,502 ft (1,982 m), in the western San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest. The upper reaches, sometimes known as Pacoima Creek, flow through Pacoima Canyon as a rapid mountain stream. It then reaches the Pacoima Dam Reservoir in the western San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest and proceeds south in a free-flowing stream alongside Pacoima Trail Road. Below the dam, it is generally known as the Pacoima Wash. From there, it joins several other unnamed streams that drain the nearby mountains, collecting at Lopez Dam. South of that dam, Pacoima Wash is encased in a concrete flood control channel, and travels south from Kagel Canyon in Sylmar though San Fernando, Pacoima, Mission Hills, Panorama City, and Van Nuys.

But nature was substantially altered. In 1911, the developers of the Van Nuys townsite bulldozed Pacoima Wash from Sherman Way to the Los Angeles River, for 3 miles, replacingg it will Tyrone St. a 50’ wide street/flood channel.

Years of flooding downstream followed. Van Nuys flooded in the great Los Angeles flooding in 1938.

In the 1950’s drastic efforts finally were made to protect Oacoima Wash neighbors.

Just after Interstate 5, the stream was diverted to the Pacoima Diversion Channel,joining Tujunga Wash further upstream. The Pacoima Wash Headwotks were created —-also—-where the Interstate 5 interchange is, for settling of high flood volumes. Most water, and most threat of flooding were diminished. Forty one years later, Congressman Tony Cardenas won funding to turn the headworks, bare ground used only to settle flood volumes, into parkland. The earlier attempts to channelize the wash from the Pacoima Headworks south were left alone—and at Raymer St this channel was directed to Van Nuys Bl.

But there was more Pacoima Wash, south of the METROLINK. All of the Pacoima Wash south of the METROLINK was altered—bulldozed away—in preparing the 1911 townsite of Van Nuys.

The Wash was graded away—Tyrone St became the channel for the Wash, in flood time, from Kittridge to the Los Angeles River, 2 1/2 miles south. Not without cost—flooding in Van Nuys was an issue every year. A In the great 1938 Los Angeles rains and flood, parts of Van Nuys flooded.

Through the 1960’s, Van Nuys Elementary kept a pontoon bridge for kids to cross Tyrone St when it was a foot deep but 30 feet wide. Parts of the original streambed disappeared—and can be traced behind the YMCA. The Knights of Columbus is shoehorned in a 100 foot wide channel.

The flooding issues remained until the 1950’s when the Pacoima Diversion Channel took the stream east from Laurel Canyon and the I 5-CA 118 interchange to the Tujunga Wash. several miles of Pacoima Wash remained—drained by several miles of adjoining storm drains. And from Vanowen to the Los Angeles River, the historic Pacoima Wash disappears.