Congresswoman Janice Hahn has renewed a call that she made last month to the Army Corps of Engineers to make immediate repairs to the San Pedro breakwater.
El Niño storms hit the region this week and battered the already damaged breakwater. As long as the breakwater remains unrepaired, it will be vulnerable to breaching and could mean potential disaster at the Port of Los Angeles.
When the Middle Harbor breakwater breached in 2014 after Hurricane Marie, four terminals at the Port of Long Beach were shut down while emergency repairs were made.
Congresswoman Hahn expressed her frustration in a bureaucratic system that prevents funding to be allocated efficiently.
“ Right now, I have been told that we have to wait for funding to be potentially allocated to the repairs on February 2nd. But the storms that are already here are powerful and I worry that by next month, it could be too late ,” said Congresswoman Hahn.
“The other avenue we can explore is tapping into the Army Corps’ emergency funding reserves, but ironically that could take longer.”
In a letter to Assistant Secretary Jo Ellen Darcy, Congresswoman Hahn urged her to act proactively to push her request for funding through the bureaucratic system and enable these repairs to be made as quickly as possible.
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