Appeal Challenges Water Pumping

Civic activist Parker Herriott is challenging a water-pumping project planned as part of construction of a 171-room hotel on The Strand in Hermosa Beach.

Herriott is appealing a decision by regional water officials last month that allows the developer to pump ground water from beneath the site while an underground parking structure is built for the hotel.

Up to 7.2 million gallons of water a day will be discharged through a storm drain onto the beach, and Herriott argues that it will pose a safety risk to beach-goers, particularly young children. His appeal, filed with the State Water Resources Control Board, is under review.

“The problem is that some child or baby might wander over there and fall into what I think is going to amount to an irrigation ditch,” Herriott said Wednesday. “It’s just not safe.”

But Dominic Holzhaus, an attorney for the developer, Hermosa Beach Investment Co., says the developer has agreed to a number of restrictions imposed by county public works officials that will govern the speed and volume of the water pumping.

“The threat to public health and safety will be no greater than storm water runoff in a gutter,” Holzhaus said Wednesday.