Sierra Club Opposes Toll Road Extension

Armed with a report showing that San Mateo Creek is far cleaner than neighboring Aliso and San Juan Creeks, environmentalists on Thursday called for a halt to development of the Foothill South toll road, which would cross the stream.

The $644-million, 16-mile toll road, proposed by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, would connect Oso Parkway to Interstate 5 south of San Clemente, crossing San Onofre State Park and San Mateo Creek.

Sierra Club officials say the construction of the toll road, and the development it would make possible, would result in increased pollution in the creek and subsequent closures at Trestles Beach, the popular surfing spot where San Mateo Creek flows into the ocean.

They point to the record number of beach closures caused by urban runoff and sewage spills along Orange County beaches in the first five months of this year, surpassing the total number of spills for all of 1999.

“The beaches and quality of water is getting more and more dangerous” in Orange County, said Elizabeth Lambe, Sierra Club representative. “It is unique and valuable to have a beach that is safe to play and swim in all the time.”

“I understand the concerns and fears [of the Sierra Club],” said Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson, who sits on the toll road board of directors. “It makes sense. Where man lives and dwells there’s going to be impact.”

But Wilson said development in South Orange County is imminent and that adding another transportation route is responsible planning for the future.

Lambe said she and other Sierra Club volunteers will be at San Clemente beaches on Saturday to inform beachgoers of the issue and to pass out postcards to send to Wilson.

“In the face of mounting evidence that the toll roads aren’t worth building, elected officials should responsibly act to halt plans for a toll road and find other solutions to traffic problems,” Lambe said.

Construction of the toll road isn’t expected to begin until 2004, according to TCA spokeswoman Lisa Telles, and still awaits the outcome of the agency’s environmental impact statement, which officials hope to have approved in 2003.

The Sierra Club study showed that bacteria levels in San Mateo Creek--a stream running through the undeveloped area northeast of San Clemente--fell well within acceptable limits set by the state’s California Ocean Plan.

Aliso Creek, a short urbanized stream, and San Juan Creek, a larger channelized stream, had bacteria levels exceeding the state limits.

The study analyzed water samples from summer of 1999 and January 2000 for bacteria such as E. coli, enterocci and fecal coliforms that can cause ear and eye infections, skin rashes and gastrointestinal distress.

Some South County residents are unconvinced of the need for the route. “The toll road basically opens the back country of Orange County to development,” said Mark Cousineau, president of the San Clemente Surfrider Foundation. “Without expensive roads to access the back country, it’s landlocked.”

Telles said the toll road is not needed now but definitely will be.

“The population of Southern California is going to increase,” Telles said. “How do we manage the increase? Do we look at the future and start planning for it, or do we sit and wait, and let Southern California become so congested that it’s no longer a desirable place to live?”

Telles said the development plans along the southern section of Interstate 5 have been in place since the 1970s because planners knew that to ignore growth would mean worse gridlock than we have today.

“The objective is not to destroy San Mateo Creek or Trestles, or have negative impact on on the land,” Wilson said. “And we have a tremendous lesson-learned file [from the existing toll roads]. We know about runoff. If [a freeway] is going to be there, then we want it to have the least amount of impact possible.”

But Cousineau said the county should reconsider.

“This area is really unique,” he said of San Mateo Creek. “It’s where a state park and a national forest come together. We have really clean water here and we want to keep it that way.”

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Road Opposition

One proposed route for the county’s final 16 miles of toll road passes along and over San Mateo Creek, which drains into the Pacific Ocean at Trestles Beach. A Sierra Club study reports that the potential pollution caused by the road could lead to closures at the popular surfing beach.