Letter: Kellogg Substation needs flood defense

After reading about the Corps of Engineers’ plan to extend the height of the Los Angeles River side walls to be able to handle more water flow, I recalled the concerns about the El Niño rainfall in the 1990s and the concern that the L.A. River might breech the wall at the turn right at the GWP Operation Center and Grayson Power Plant.

Back then, GWP had not built the new Kellogg Substation directly on the ground level. It receives and distributes all of the electric power to our city. At the time of design, I brought this up, and it was ignored.

Our city has been assisting and providing information and the possibilities of flooding to residents that may be affected, and I am wondering what our GWP is prepared to do to protect the operation center and make sure it does not get flooded if and when the L.A. River flows over the wall at the east to south turn in Glendale.

If the basement floods in Grayson, the damages will shut it down for good, and if Kellogg Substation floods we will be up the swamp without a paddle. The electric utility in Japan would have never believed their flood wall would ever be breached at Fukuyama, either.

Larry Moorehouse

Glendale

The writer is a retired Grayson Power Plant manager.