Pipelining ParadiseBy Carol Perkins Paradise is blessed with many creeks, headwaters for tributaries to Butte Creek and Dry Creek. But these creeks seem to be considered a curse. The cure: move water as quickly as possible through the town limits, treating it more like toxic waste than a life-sustaining necessity. Sound far-fetched? Not if you check out the Master Drainage Facilities Plan for the Town of Paradise. This outdated plan calls for putting long sections of creeks into underground pipes. Is this plan in line with the Town General Plan? Perhaps not consistently. BEC stumbled upon this egregious plan when Paradise Irrigation District (PID) responded to our comments to the project's environmental document. The project would pipe 300 feet of the upper end of Clear Creek. After multiple inquiries and hearings, we learned that the plan to pipeline the creek is a combination of forces, PID's desires for their project and the Town's drainage plan. Considering the cumulative effect of the Town's drainage plan, management of the water resources and local ecosystem could be improved. Creek or Drainage?PID did an Initial Study and proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) for their future Corporate Yard project on Clark Road just south of Bille Road. There is still time to get your opinions heard; the public hearing portion of CEQA process is open until the next PID board meeting August 18. (See the PID Corporation Yard – Initial Study). While the environmental documentation mentions Clear Creek will be piped, it fails to show on any of the diagrams that the creek even exists. It also fails to make any connection to how activities in the headwaters of the Dry Creek watershed will affect fish or aquatic species beyond a five-mile radius. In fact, the IS/MND treats the creek as if its only purpose is as a drainage for runoff and storm water. The project fails to recognize that the overall health of the creek affects wildlife downstream, including Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. Streambed Alterations and Point-Source PollutionConstruction projects that change a stream or create potential water quality problems require a couple permits. PID will pursue a streambed alteration permit from the Sacramento water branch of California's Department of Fish and Game. An employee I contacted who issues these permits appreciates the pipe, saying that the pipe will protect wildlife from drinking potentially polluted water. Creeks are, however, less polluted than ditches and gutters; the fish and game in and around Paradise appreciate the creeks. After the Army Corps of Engineers makes a jurisdictional determination (JD) they'll issue a federal Clean Water Act Section 404 permit that requires PID to initiate 401 certification with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (CVRWQCB) as part of California's Clean Water Act to protect the quality of the water from construction pollution. Clear Creek, Tributary to Dry CreekWhile the mining activity on Dry Creek at New Era Mine has come to an end at least for now, the county is currently attempting to reclaim the land from the damage created during North Continent Land and Timber's 22-month illegal operation. Yes, the County had approved the operation, but there were no mandatory permits or wastewater discharge requirements protecting the quality of the water. No required agreements allowing streambed alteration, nor the requisite 404 permit and 401 certification protecting Dry Creek during the settling pond construction. While our County failed to stop the madness, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars, the one entity tasked with upholding the law to protect waters of the state, the CVRWQCB, simply turned their backs. Their inaction placed the impossible and expensive task of proving the mine was polluting the stream on concerned citizens. Contact Information BEC encourages you to write a letter letting the agencies know how you feel about piping Clear Creek.
The Town's Soils Map shows all the creeks in Paradise. See the map online. From the Summer 2010 issue of the Environmental News. |