Vile mystery liquid turns everything orange in luxe LA neighborhood where homes cost $3M

In the affluent hills of Encino, residents have spent years discussing the notorious Ballina Canyon “River.”

But this is no picturesque water feature.

Rather, it’s a stream of orange-colored groundwater that’s been flowing down their streets for years — staining cars and homes, creating slippery conditions and sparking fears someone will eventually be seriously hurt.

“There’s this groundwater that’s seeping up and turning the street this horrible shade of orange,” said Roy Nwaisser, president of the Encino Neighborhood Council.

“It’s turning their homes orange. It’s turning their cars orange. And it’s also a safety hazard because it’s very slick and it’s caused quite a few accidents.”

The California Post walked the nearly mile-long stretch most affected by the runoff with resident Andrea Pearlman, who helped form a committee to push for a solution to a problem that has plagued the neighborhood for five years.

“We’ve been told it’s magnesium in the water,” Pearlman said.

“And sometimes there’s even foam that builds up. There’s been a couple motorcycles or cyclists who have fallen, and most recently there was a lady who actually fell back and hit her head. So … we want this to be taken care of before someone is seriously injured.”

Nwaisser said the safety concerns have become increasingly alarming.

“We have a person that lives at the corner of the street where most of the water pools, and he’s had his gate crashed into several times,” he said.

“There’s even been a rollover accident.”

The neighborhood, where homes average about $3 million, falls within Councilmember Nithya Raman’s district. Residents have been meeting with her office for several years in an effort to get the issue resolved.

The city’s Bureau of Engineering has estimated a permanent fix could cost between $5 million and $15 million — but residents say they’ve repeatedly been told there is no funding available.

“And, of course, we’re told there’s no there’s no money for that,” Pearlman said.

One resident, David Cefali, a biologist and structural engineer, said the problem stems from groundwater naturally emerging in an area that lacks adequate storm-drain infrastructure.

“Obviously the problem is that it doesn’t,” Cefali said.

“It’s a natural phenomenon. It’s a product of how much of the iron goes into solution in the groundwater. And then that organic procedure … this aerobic process where it precipitates out the iron. And that’s when you see the red. And then you see one of the byproducts, which is the foam.”

Cefali said the long-term solution would be to install a storm drain higher up Ballina Canyon Road and redirect existing drainage systems into it.

“There are drains that are in some people’s rear yards, and that brings it out to the street and it dumps it into the curb,” he said.

“You take those same drains, you connect them up to the storm sewer, and it takes it underneath the roadway.”

He believes smaller, less expensive fixes could also significantly improve safety.

“There are certain locations where the curbs were constructed slightly incorrectly,” he said.

“If the city were able to come through and just fix a dozen locations, which I think they could for a modest amount, they could really remediate the safety issues here.”

Residents continue to meet with city officials each month, but many say progress has been painfully slow.

“They’re giving us very incremental updates,” Nwaisser said.

“There’s not really a timeline for getting it fixed, so it feels like a little bit of lip service. They are giving us the attention but not giving us the action.”

While experts say the orange water is not hazardous, residents fear the long-running problem could ultimately hurt property values in one of Encino’s most expensive neighborhoods.

“These poor people who live right here on Ballina Canyon, when and if they want to sell their homes one day, that’s going to be really hard to do,” Pearlman said.

“We just want our neighborhood to be nice and clean and safe.”

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