Bridge Builders’ Debris Spurs Waves of Protest

California Department of Transportation officials learned an environmental lesson the hard way this week as they began a bridge-widening project along the northbound lanes of busy Interstate 5 across the San Dieguito River.

The lesson: Don’t dump on Del Mar.

Concrete debris removed from the bridge spans last week and hauled by a private firm to a site near Del Mar’s San Dieguito Lagoon was spotted almost immediately by Del Mar Councilmen John Gillies and Scott Barnett, newly appointed members of a lagoon enhancement subcommittee.

Outraged, the two city officials immediately notified Del Mar City Manager Kay Jimno, who called Caltrans to protest the illegal dumping and demand that the rock pile be removed.

Perplexed transportation spokesmen at first denied that the concrete and steel eyesore came from their bridge, then confirmed that a private contractor had temporarily placed the chunks of bridge railing near the lagoon--on a site that obviously was a favorite dumping ground for others.

“It wasn’t just Caltrans dumping on us,” Barnett admitted. “There are tires and old rugs and a myriad of garbage strewn around there. There’s even an old refrigerator right down by the water’s edge.”

Most of the mess around the tidal lagoon has been left by what Barnett called “midnight dumpers,” whom he defined as “persons too cheap to pay the dump fee or too lazy to go to the dump at all.” But the Caltrans debris was identifiable and the culprits were close at hand, so the councilmen took out their wrath on the state agency.

Jimno, who also had spotted the unsightly pile during a scouting trip around town, pointed out that, technically, the illegal dump is within the City of San Diego and is on private property, so the City of Del Mar could do nothing official except complain.

Dave Brown, foreman for EMSCO Concrete Breaking of San Juan Capistrano, said his firm was hired to remove the freeway bridge railings to make way for a fifth traffic lane and emergency shoulders in the northbound I-5 lanes. Because of the traffic, only a small truck could be parked atop the bridge to haul away the debris that could not be dropped to the ground.

“We stored the stuff there until we could bring in heavy trucks to take it to a proper dump,” Brown said. Otherwise, he said, the heavy chunks would have been dropped into the river, where “they really would have messed up the environment.”

“We make no excuses for not asking permission of the proper person to use that spot,” Brown said, “but we never would have thought of doing it if there hadn’t been all that other junk laying around.”

Brown cleaned up the last of the waste concrete from the lagoon’s edge Thursday, “and we hauled off a lot of the other stuff, too. I figure we did them a favor by cleaning up some of the mess.”

Caltrans officials, however, remain on alert for further trouble.

Word of the dumping incident has reached the state Coastal Commission and Paul Webb, commission analyst in charge of the San Dieguito coastal region, is checking the permits issued to Caltrans for the $1.7-million bridge-widening project to see if the workers are obeying the strict regulations designed to protect the sensitive waterways below.

After reviewing the paper work, Webb said: “I think I’ll take a ride out there and see for myself.”