South County : 2 Firms Face Penalties in Creek Bed Actions

Two Orange County companies face Municipal Court arraignments and possible stiff fines after they were cited by a state Department of Fish and Game warden for illegally obstructing and diverting creek beds in Irvine and Mission Viejo without proper permits, a department spokesman said Wednesday.

Representatives of the Irvine Industrial Research and Development Co. of Newport Beach are scheduled to appear in Central Orange County Municipal Court today on citations charging the company with two counts of unlawful diversion and obstruction of the channel and one count of depositing rubbish in the creek bed.

Maximum punishment on each count is a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, Warden Darryl Avila said.

Avila said he issued citations Nov. 7 after workmen bulldozed about one-quarter mile of the bed of Borrego Canyon Creek near Trabuco Road in Irvine during construction of an industrial complex there, removing a number of trees in the process.

He said that a permit had been sought for the creek bed alterations but that the work was done before the permit had been approved by Fish and Game officials.

Bob Williams, project director for the firm, said that the work was being done as part of a flood-control project and that, because a permit had been applied for, “we asked the warden to come out that day and review the site for habitat protection.”

He said the company probably will ask for a postponement in court today so that mitigation procedures can be discussed.

In the second case, scheduled for arraignment Dec. 23, Southern California Edison Co. was cited Nov. 22 by Avila on two counts of illegal stream-bed alteration.

He said extensive rechanneling and pouring of cement was done in Oso Creek near Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo, destroying about one acre of the channel and its vegetation.

Russ Hawkes, a company spokesman at corporate headquarters in Rosemead, said that workmen were attempting to prevent water from undermining transmission facilities there. He added that a permit has been applied for and that company attorneys have not decided what position to take when they appear in court.