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February 26, 2022
Studio One Eleven Breaks Ground on Unprecedented Storm Water Improvement Project at Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site

Rancho Los Cerritos has unveiled an advanced groundwater reclamation system at its historic landmark, museum, and gardens in Long Beach. Construction will begin in April 2022.

The project captures, stores, and reuses rainfall on-site, and includes an extensive public education program aligned with Rancho Los Cerritos’ mission. The $4 million initiative—named “Looking Back to Advance Forward”—combines new technology with techniques developed by the Tongva people over 5,000 years ago.

Through this system, the Rancho will capture and reuse virtually 100% of rainfall, significantly reducing water use while preventing runoff and pollutants from reaching the Dominguez Gap Wetlands, the Los Angeles River, and the ocean. Rancho Los Cerritos is the first stormwater improvement project in the US on a local state and nationally registered historic site to employ such an extensive system.

A valuable asset to the community, the Rancho’s outdoor gardens and spaces are free to the public and were deemed an essential service for the mental health and well-being for the surrounding community during Covid 19. In addition to being a place of respite from urban life, there will be an educational component that is intrinsic to the public mission of the museum.

An Advanced Approach Rooted in History The system employs two distinct methods for capturing, storing and treating stormwater: combining the latest technology with traditional methods of water conservation in keeping with the institution’s mission as a nonprofit museum of history. The first method uses new technology to recapture and store stormwater through water-permeable paving at the top of the site, leading to an underground 22,000-gallon cistern. Stormwater captured at the cistern is filtered and treated, providing irrigation to the site and historic gardens.

Said Studio One Eleven Landscape Director Kirk Keller, “This innovative system is significantly large for such a site, and we believe The Rancho project can be scaled even further and duplicated at other places across the country.” The more traditional water-capturing techniques leverage the Rancho’s geographically elevated position at the top of Bixby Knolls to allow gravity to channel rainwater into a natural arroyo at the lowest point of the property. Designers expanded the capacity of the arroyo to hold a greater amount of stormwater, and will allow native plants to remain undisturbed, allowing wildlife to thrive. Water channeled to the arroyo is treated through biofiltration.

To further reduce runoff, a large parking lot that adjoins the City of Long Beach roadway will add “bioswales” — a natural waterway that removes pollutants. This system will capture an additional 140,000 cubic feet of runoff annually increasing stormwater capture from 40% to 95% annually. This prevents runoff from reaching the Dominguez Gap Wetlands and the Los Angeles River, both less than ¼ mile away.