Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
April 18, 2007
1. Top Item
Perilous times for San Mateo Creek
By Terry Rogers, staff writer
A national conservation group yesterday named San Mateo Creek as the nation's second-most imperiled waterway on its annual list of the 10 most endangered rivers.
The report by American Rivers in
The report calls for the public to oppose the proposed freeway. It also urges the California Coastal Commission, the state Department of Fish & Game and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reject the approved route.
For the past 22 years, American Rivers has issued the Most Endangered Rivers report to provide a national platform for waterways facing crises. The group said it has 65,000 members.
It picked San Mateo Creek for the No. 2 spot because of “the magnitude of the threat” posed by the planned toll road, plus state and federal agencies' decisions expected in the next two years that “will decide the future of the creek,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers.
The creek stretches for 22 miles from its headwaters in the
The waterway drains a 139-square-mile watershed and provides habitat for 11 endangered species, including an intermittent population of the southern steelhead, the rarest native trout in
“San Mateo Creek deserves this national spotlight,” said Dan Silver of the Endangered Habitats League in
The creek made headlines in 1999 when a college student accidentally discovered southern steelhead, an endangered species, in its waters. Until then, scientists believed the trout were extinct in
Efforts to restore the creek and make it more hospitable to steelhead and other native species have been slow but steady, said George Sutherland, a San Clemente volunteer for Trout Unlimited.
Since 2002, the state Coastal Conservancy has allocated $300,000 to upgrade the
In the past three years, volunteers for Trout Unlimited have removed more than 33,000 non-native bullfrogs, crawfish, largemouth bass, green sunfish and bullheads, Sutherland said.
About 18 months ago,
The creek now is at the center of a struggle between environmentalists and the Transportation Corridor Agencies, two joint groups created by the state to build toll roads in
Critics of the four-lane toll road, which can be expanded to six lanes in the future, said it will accelerate development in southern
In addition, surfers are concerned the road might alter sediment flow from the creek and degrade the quality of waves at the world-renowned Trestles surfing reefs.
A study commissioned by transportation agencies concluded that such waves are not at risk. It said most of the sand covering the reef that grooms the swells comes from the shoreline north of the surf break, not the creek.
Toll-road officials said the freeway, scheduled for construction starting in 2010, is needed to relieve congestion.
The freeway is designed so it won't pollute the surroundings, said Jennifer Seaton, a spokeswoman for the transportation agencies. Retention basins will be installed along the road to capture the “first flush” of runoff from a storm and hold it so pollutants can settle out before reaching the creek, she said.
Such pledges are not believable, said Mark Rauscher of the Surfrider Foundation.
“There's never been a road built that didn't pollute – ever,” he said. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20070418-9999-1m18creek.html
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