South OC Watersheds Doomed

Failed Environmental Planning: South County Watersheds

“Success has a thousand fathers; failure is an orphan.” Origin Unknown

Never was a quote so true as this one in regards to the degrading watersheds and alarming water quality impairments in South Orange County.

County or municipal taxpayers aren’t being asked to shoulder the major burden of ecological restoration, even though it was our Board of Supervisors and other locally elected officials who got us into this mess. Unfortunately, it will cost lots more to comply with the federal and state environmental laws than combined local budgets. Those in power seem deaf, dumb and blind to responsibility or accountability anyway.

Nation-wide, water quality laws and regulations began addressing urban runoff contamination plus plummeting ground and surface water quality degradations decades ago. These decrees were primarily due to rampant over-development and reciprocal natural resource diminishment. This led to the federal Clean Water Act which was signed by conservative Republican Richard M. Nixon, and the California Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act in 1969 by the Republican’s first neocon, Governor Ronald Reagan-----So don’t blame the left-wing, ultra-liberal, tree-hugging commie-pinko Democrats for them.

Looked at another way, our parents (the County, County Flood Control, cities and their water/sanitation districts, etc.) didn’t look out for us. Like Marlon Brando in the backseat of that limo with his brother Rod Steiger in the Oscar winner “Waterfront,” we too could have been a contender, acclaimed for our rural success.

Bucolic, pastoral, for many of us “down south” this is the last best part of the County. Lots of rolling hills, some wilderness still woven through the fabric of our yards, everyday sightings of critters not found in the flatlands of Santa Ana or Westminster. We don’t need to look at plasticine, ersatz flora or fauna at Disneyland: We had the real, unsullied deal right out our windows. Occasional encounters with tooth, fang and claw actually reminded us of why we moved here. This is why today we are even more alarmed and protective. Many of us are now sullenly sentimental, nostalgically remembering bitterly “the way we were.”

Most of the build-out that led to intensified land use (more like abuse) occurred in the 60’s and 70’s. Now we’re at the infill stage, plowing under the final remnants of Nature’s footprints. Many of the officials who greedily stuck out their hands for campaign contributions and perks from developers are long since gone. Their staffs too, so the finger-pointing and blame game isn’t going to help although the lessons of history should.

Literally “Waiting for Godot,” the progeny of the guilty who fed at the public trough and thrived via increase building fees, property taxes and assessment revenues now turn to our grandparents, the state and federal agencies to correct or remedy their failed policies. Environmental planning was and still is an oxymoron around here. They don’t look ahead unless they have their finger wet and tilted towards the power wind that assures them of job security and safe retirement harbors.

$50 million watershed restorations like that for the Aliso Creek, a poster child for water quality impairment if ever there was one, are being predicated upon state initiative money pools and grants, or US Army Corps of Engineer buy-in and Congressional fiscal assistance. Presently, we’re $40 million short in our attempt to restore only a portion, about 4 miles in the Aliso Creek Canyon aptly named SUPER. “Super” as in it will take super-human skills to find the money and political will to turn back the ecological clock for just 15% of this 38 square mile watershed.

The County’s own website update from January 2008 reads: “The project has

secured a $1 million Department of Water Resources grant and a $4.6 million

State Water Resources Control Board grant funded through Proposition 50. The

project continues to receive Corps funding, and $5 million was included in

the Water Resources Development Act in 2007.”

As they say, follow the money, and our own traitorous Congressman, John Campbell (Republican CA-48) voted this past year to reject the balance of necessary funding. Keep in mind he found time to have his picture taken for the media junket as a champion of this bill in September of 2006. He promised to wet-nurse it through personally. We rolled the dice and trustingly awaited a paternal fiscal bail-out, even though our own government drove us off this ecological cliff.

Keeping in mind too that projected costs for these monolithic public works ideas always result in soaring expenses, over-budget pork barrel vendors and consultant fees rise astronomically. Now we’ve got through-the-roof energy prices to factor in as well. While this restoration mandated by federal and state regulations sits idle, local staff devoted to it will gradually gobble up and drain off those initial millions in the meantime.

When you were young and immature, ever have a friend or relative who knowingly drove drunk on Friday night? He or she got arrested and thrown in the clink, but they expected to be bailed out immediately. Some wisely left them in for the weekend to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, we don’t have that choice and anyway, let’s face it, a few nights in the hoosegow for these eco-dopes would actually be letting them off too easy.

Roger E. Butow is the founder and Executive Director of the Clean Water Now! Coalition, a watershed protection watchdog group in South Orange County.