Road realignment stirs up dust

By Billie Owens Acorn Staff Writer

LISA ADAMS/Acorn Newspapers BONE DRY-Mark Burley, member of the Santa Rosa Valley Municipal Advisory Board, examines the dry streambed 50 yards north of Santa Rosa Road where the Arroyo Santa Rosa intersects.

Ventura County’s $5 million Moorpark Road realignment project, completed last March, might be having a damming effect on the wildlife-rich Arroyo Santa Rosa and creating problems for the environment, state Department of Fish and Game officials say.

The transportation artery connects Tierra Rejada Road to the north and Santa Rosa Road to the south and is meant to improve traffic and safety on Moorpark Road. Though vehicles may be flowing slightly better through Santa Rosa Valley, the arroyo is not, said Morgan Wehtje, Fish and Game’s supervising senior environmental scientist.

The meandering creek runs east to west, through the Tierra Rejada and adjacent Santa Rosa valleys. Farmland upstream has been flooded at times, while the water downstream disappears into dust, Wehtje said.

Hundreds of home, business and agriculture uses affect Arroyo Santa Rosa every day.

"I feel like we’ve lost a treasure that’s worth fighting to get back," said Jean Bergenstal, who has lived in the area for 17 years. "It’s an ecosystem that’s existed for hundreds of years and now it’s threatened. I’m sad about it and I’m sure the wildlife are sad about it too."

Flooding on farmland where the arroyo meets the newly aligned Moorpark Road has prompted legal action by Bordier’s, one of California’s largest and oldest ornamental plant nurseries.

To resolve the problem, Bordier’s has filed an administrative claim with Ventura County and with the cities of Moorpark and Thousand Oaks, said Bill Russell, president of the Irvine-based grower of ornamental shrubs and trees.

The state plans to lodge its own complaint with the county in the coming weeks, Wehtje said.

The county disputes the claims of flooding and habitat damage and maintains the road project was completed in full compliance with all permits. The road was approved by the Board of Supervisors and paid for with federal grant money and other regional and local government funds.

"We are acutely bringing the issue to the county’s attention," Russell said. "We are working to resolve this in a gentlemanly fashion for as long as we can. Filing the claim serves to ‘bookmark’ the situation for the county," he said.

Seeds of discontent

Bordier’s is an 82-year-old company that owns about a thousand acres in California. When Bordier’s bought 401 acres in Tierra Rejada Valley from row-crop farmer George Boskovich in 2001, the company was well aware of the county’s construction plans, Russell said.

In fact, Bordier’s had to sell between 25 and 35 acres to the county for the realignment project. Otherwise, the county would have had to invoke eminent domain powers to obtain the property. Not yet ready to start operations in Tierra Rejada Valley, Bordier’s promptly leased the rest of the land back to Boskovich Fresh Cut Farms. Bordier’s is busy developing a state-of-the-art nursery in Somis.

Russell said flooding on his company’s property became a concern after the heavy rains last February. He characterized Boskovich’s crop losses—including spinach, onions, cilantro and parsley—as "negligible." The flooded area is left to dry before planting starts again, he said.

  If Bordier’s container nursery operation were there, however, problems would exist, Russell said. Bordier’s uses an extensive and costly underground water recycling system that could be contaminated by polluted urban runoff.

  Chris Hooke, Ventura County deputy director of transportation, said that "changes in agricultural practices" and the lack of "ag runoff" might explain why there’s less water in the arroyo.

Whatever the reason, the arroyo’s ailments are "not caused by the road," Hooke said.

"We built the road in accordance with the Fish and Game agreement and adhered to the conditions."

Wehtje disagrees.

"The road is too high, so the culvert they put in to allow the creek to continue under the road is also too high and it acts like a dam," Wehtje said. "The farmer’s land by the project site is flooding, while a couple of miles away people say they’ve never seen the creek that dry—even during the worst drought."

She said some of the grading deviated from the state-issued stream bed alteration permit, "incorrectly moving the arroyo to the west."

Road defended

The road contractor was Sun Valley-based Security Paving Co., which has handled several large area projects, including the Highway 1 and Interstate 101 interchange project near the Santa Clara River bridge.

"The company did a good job on Moorpark Road," Hooke said. "In early 2003, a Fish and Game representative visited the realignment site and requested a few minor adjustments, which we did, and then Fish and Game signed off on it. If there were problems, why did they approve it and why hasn’t Fish and Game talked to me about them?"

Wehtje suggests the road realignment and resulting arroyo issues slipped under the state’s radar.

She said Fish and Game has only seven people to monitor Santa Barbara and Ventura counties—and Los Angeles County north of the 10 Freeway.

"There are lots of projects and few Fish and Game staff," Wehtje said, adding that the environmental impact of the realignment project was "not real visible to the naked eye" at first.

"You can’t know simply from looking at the creek whether the (streambed alteration) permit was adhered to," she said.

"When you give someone a permit with specs in it, you expect them to build it the way they’re supposed to. But I started getting calls from people who ride their horses and hike the area and they were concerned about the arroyo drying up."