Aliso Creek study on tap

A 7-mile stretch of Aliso Creek is under study by the Army Corps of Engineers and the County of Orange for ways to improve wildlife habitat and water quality.

The study is separate from the SUPER (Stabilization, Utility Protection and Environmental Restoration) Project, a $45 million federal effort to tame the Aliso watercourse, which is subject to flooding and erosion.

The study is a spinoff of an overall Orange County Watershed study of 2002 — which preceded the SUPER Project — and will evaluate the creek from Pacific Park in Aliso Viejo to the ocean, including 1,000 feet of the Wood Canyon tributary to Aliso Creek, said John Vivante, lead planner with the Corps for the watershed project.

The SUPER Project includes a creek-water treatment plant that, if approved, would be built near the mouth of the creek at Aliso Beach, said MaryAnne Skorpanich, director of the Orange County Watershed agency.

The $11 million treatment plant would target bacteria that collects at the mouth of the creek, and is still in “study phase,” Skorpanich said.

“The SUPER Project is one of the alternatives to be analyzed and compared,” Skorpanich said. “We are weighing competing goals of habitat versus people.”

Skorpanich said grant funds have been obtained to partially meet the matching requirements for the SUPER Project, but that project, which is preferred by various parties with interests in the creek, is far from being approved.

“The Watershed Management Plan was completed in 2002 identifying potential projects and best management practices that could be implemented throughout the watershed to address a variety of concerns raised by stakeholders,” Skorpanich said. “The Aliso Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project was one potential project identified. The Corps of Engineers with Orange County is now conducting a study (Aliso Creek Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study) on what project could best restore Aliso Creek within the boundaries of Aliso Woods Canyon Wilderness Park. The study will proceed to identify project alternatives and then weigh their relative merits and costs. The county and a number of stakeholders prefer a project alternative we call the SUPER Project that combines ecosystem restoration with bacteria treatment upstream of Aliso Beach.”

To date, there have been federal appropriations to fund the Aliso Creek Ecosystem Restoration feasibility study four of the past six years, Skorpanich said.

In addition, $9 million of the $11 million toward the local cost share of the federal project has been committed for the implementation project, she added.

Upstream, planners want to improve the habitat area for endangered species in the part of the creek that runs through Aliso Woods Canyon Wilderness Park.

“We are putting together baseline conditions and then will present preliminary alternatives to the public,” Vivante said. Funds for the project, which could run into the tens of millions of dollars, would be obtained from Congressional funds earmarked for eco-system restoration and water quality improvement, he added.

Trout once populated creek

One new wrinkle in the Aliso Creek watershed improvement program is that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has determined that steelhead trout — listed as a threatened or endangered species — was once present in the stream.

“Because this species is now known to have been there, we may have to provide a habitat so it can return,” Skorpanich said.

Vivante said the ecosystem restoration effort will “dovetail” with the proposed redevelopment of the Aliso Creek Inn and Golf Course, but that the resort developer, Athens Group, is conducting its own studies.

“The focus of the project will be on watershed improvements to restore the creek’s dynamic function and habitat for endangered species by developing alternatives for ecosystem restoration for impacted reaches of the creek,” according to the notice for a May 7 scoping session on the project. “The restoration project will focus on revitalization of the riparian vegetation community; establishment of an environmental corridor to benefit wildlife and sensitive species; creek stabilization, and addressing flood risk management.”

The scoping session will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. May 7 at Mission Viejo City Council Chamber, 200 Civic Center, Mission Viejo.

The scoping session is an opportunity for the public to comment on water quality concerns in the study area before an environmental impact report (EIR) is prepared.

A draft EIR is expected to be released to the public in 2010, and more public meetings will be held at future dates, Vivante said.

For more information, contact Zoila Verdaguer-Finch, zoila.finch@ocpw.ocgov.com or (714) 955-0618.

Comments can be sent by May 10 to: John Vivante, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, CESPL-PD-RN, P.O. Box 532711, Los Angeles, CA 90053-2325.

CINDY FRAZIER is city editor of the Coastline Pilot. She can be contacted at (949) 380-4321 or cindy.frazier@latimes.com.