Senators dive into basin safety issues San Bernardino County is appraising the land for a possible settlement with the Colonies developers in Upland, even though steep canyons can spew tons of boulders toward existing homes and schools below. By Wednesday, the two senators' staffs had contacted local officials and agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the San Bernardino County Flood Control District, 4th District Supervisor Gary Ovitt, Daniel Cozad of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority and San Bernardino Councilwoman Susan Lien Longville, said Feinstein's communications director, Howard Gantman. Cozad and the watershed authority helped coordinate several studies of the spreading grounds below Deer and Day canyons north of Banyan Street focusing on flood-control improvements, groundwater recharge and habitat preservation. Rancho Cucamonga officials have said they want to annex the spreading grounds for open space. County officials maintain the basin is safe. Scientists concluded existing property at risk also includes Ontario International Airport. Boxer and Feinstein, both California Democrats, expressed concern four years ago that helped compel the state to fund a $250,000 study of whether Deer Canyon Debris Basin can withstand a 100-year flood. Several scientists concluded the basin is undersized, and the state recommended the Army Corps work with the Flood Control District to enlarge the basin. Last year, the district asked the state Office of Emergency Services for a $330,000 federal hazard mitigation grant for an enlargement. "If no action is taken, the existing basin will continue to overfill with debris and sediment as occurred last winter, even with minor storms,' county public works officials said in a June 2004 modified grant application. "Debris and sediment carried over the dam's spillway can block the channel road crossings, causing flooding and property damage.' The grant application was not approved. The basin remains the same size as when the Arry Corps finished building it in 1983. Boxer and Feinstein said they are worried about public safety below Deer Canyon, and they remain concerned that no consensus has been reached to resolve it. "We are examining the situation closely,' Gantman said. Boxer asked her staff last week for a full report and inquiry of all relevant agencies regarding Deer Canyon flood control, her communications director, David Sandretti, said. The senators' staff contact list includes Rancho Cucamonga City Engineer William J. O'Neil. Several scientists and land-use critics want to know how the county can seek a price tag for flood-control spreading grounds, especially when the land lies below a basin the county acknowledged is unsafe. "It's a contradiction,' said former state geologist James Slosson, who served under Gov. Ronald Reagan in the 1970s. "They want to fix the basin, but they haven't. Now they want to dispose of the land for a developer. It's obvious that you don't put more houses in harm's way.' Slosson, contacted Wednesday in Santa Monica, has studied deadly flood-control failures in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The Colonies dispute with the county centers on flood-control land and costs below Cucamonga Canyon in Upland. The developers have claimed the county owes them as much as $254 million. A possible $77 million settlement was scuttled after someone leaked a memo to newspapers detailing a closed-door meeting the developers had with 2nd District Supervisor Paul Biane and Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus. The county's appraisal of the spreading grounds is expected by the end of August. In a state study completed in 2002, the state Department of Water Resources and three scientists hired by the airport operators and homeowners below Deer Canyon determined the basin was dangerously undersized. The builders of the basin, the Army Corps, acknowledged the structure does not have the same effective storage space it was designed for. But the Corps insisted the basin can handle a 100-year flood. "The project provides a fairly high level of protection,' said Corps engineer Joseph Evelyn, who helped prepare hydrology studies for planning and design of the Cucamonga Project works in the 1980s, including the Deer Canyon basin. "The owner-operator, the county, and the community below have to decide if that's acceptable,' Evelyn said. "It's their call.' Evelyn later served as chief of hydraulics and hydrology for the Corps' Los Angeles District. "If the county is trying to determine if they could use the land below the basin, they'll make a sound decision,' Evelyn said. Flood-control issues have plagued southwest San Bernardino County since October 2003 firestorms burned 40 miles of mountain watersheds that drain into densely populated valleys. Most flood-control basins have performed as designed, with the aid of more than $10 million in emergency excavation costs. But post-fire flash flooding killed 16 people, nine of them children, on Dec. 25, 2003, in canyons unprotected by flood control. In January, a pregnant woman was swept to her death from a Highland crossing over City Creek at the same time flood-control structures upstream were failing. Last rainy season, during storms beginning in October, boulder-laden debris flows cut loose in neighborhoods in Highland, San Bernardino, Devore and other areas, undermined railroads in Fontana and closed Interstate 215. Since last week, Feinstein and her staff have touted the state-mandated Alluvial Fan Task Force as a possible solution to problems like those below Deer Canyon. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation creating
the task force in September. It awaits $832,000 in federal and state funding
before it can begin work. |