Council Panel Orders New Inquiry Into Pamo Dam

Besieged by environmental and civic groups opposed to construction of Pamo Dam, a San Diego City Council committee on Monday directed staff members to investigate a plethora of controversial issues that continue to dog the massive water project.

The action by the Transportation and Land Use Committee requires the city manager to report back by mid-September on concerns ranging from the adequacy of a mitigation program designed to offset habitat losses caused by the dam to the possibility that the project could induce growth.

Although the committee’s unanimous vote has no official bearing on the city’s longstanding support for the dam, opponents of the $86-million project in Pamo Valley near Ramona hailed Monday’s vote as a victory nonetheless.

‘Highly Significant’

“I think it’s highly significant and indicates a willingness to listen to the other side of the story and learn about Pamo Valley in a way they had not considered before,” said Emily Durbin, chairwoman of the Sierra Club’s Pamo Dam Task Force. “This is the first breakthrough we’ve had in getting the City Council to understand the value of this beautiful valley as something other than a site for a reservoir.”

Monday’s vote comes as three federal agencies are embroiled in a continuing dispute over whether the dam should be built.

In April, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced its intention to issue a permit allowing construction to go forward. The Corps of Engineers, which oversees development along the nation’s wetlands and waterways, concluded that the project is vital to San Diego County’s emergency water needs and would provide other public benefits, like recreation, through formation of a giant reservoir.

But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency opposes issuance of the permit, largely on grounds that the San Diego County Water Authority could increase its emergency water storage capacity in other ways that would inflict less harm on the environment.

EPA officials also are skeptical of the Water Authority’s proposal for mitigating habitat losses caused by the dam, which would inundate an isolated area that has rare streamside habitat.

Mitigation ‘Risky’

They argue that large-scale mitigation projects like the one proposed--involving the creation of new wetland and woodland habitat in the San Pasqual Valley--are risky, with a spotty success rate at best.

Moreover, the EPA believes the mitigation, as proposed, would cause “habitat fragmentation” that could threaten birds that nest in the area, among them the least Bell’s vireo, which is on the federal list of endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also opposes issuance of the permit.

The Corps of Engineers last week reaffirmed its decision to issue the Pamo Dam permit. Col. Fred Butler, commander of the Corps of Engineers’ Los Angeles district, informed EPA officials Friday that their objections had failed to persuade him to reverse his decision.

EPA officials now have 18 working days to request that discussions on the project be elevated to a higher level--between EPA and Department of the Army officials in Washington, according to Terry Wilson, an EPA spokesman in San Francisco. If further mediation fails, the EPA has final authority to veto the permit, Wilson said.

The project would consist of a 264-foot-high concrete dam across Santa Ysabel Creek and would flood Pamo Valley. A companion reclamation project would reclaim treated waste water to replenish groundwater supplies in the San Pasqual Valley, and a hydroelectric plant has been proposed.

San Diego voters approved revenue bonds for the dam in November, 1984.