Aqueduct Work Near Wetlands Questioned : Water: Environmentalist said that County Water Authority pipeline through San Marcos threatens vernal pools. Work will be stopped ‘until the situation can be resolved.’

Environmentalist David Hogan began efforts Monday to block construction of a $75-million water aqueduct through San Marcos, claiming that vernal pools and other sensitive wetlands lie in its path.

Hogan warned the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service that work on the new County Water Authority aqueduct link near Pacific Street and San Marcos Boulevard threatens to destroy vernal pools and already has damaged sensitive wetlands along San Marcos Creek.

“I’m going out to the site and take a look at what’s out there,” a Corps’ official said Monday. “It is much too early to say if there is a problem.”

Gary Stine, senior civil engineer for the water authority, said that work has been stopped on the project--an 11-mile-long, 9-foot-diameter pipeline--”until the situation can be resolved.” The water authority received a federal exemption on the project, he said, indicating that no permits were required for the work.

“We have rerouted the line to avoid sensitive areas and have fenced them off and cautioned the contractor to keep men and equipment away from there. We have done the best job we could,” Stine said. “However, we now understand that there are several maps of the area that conflict” on the presence and location of vernal pools and other sensitive ecological areas.

Hogan, who said he represents the San Diego Biodiversity Project, said he spent the winter surveying the San Marcos Valley for ecologically sensitive sites and found at least three areas, including the aqueduct site, in which vernal pools have been graded over and destroyed.

He said he has pictorial evidence of the vernal pools’ existence when the shallow depressions were filled with a foot or so of water during the heavy rains of February and March.

“I would hope that when the (water authority’s) consultant sees the evidence, they will redesign their project and mitigate for the damage done,” Hogan said. He said he plans to present his evidence to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to the Corps of Engineers in order to have the pipeline work shut down until a reevaluation of the wetlands area is completed.

Elizabeth White, Corps representative in San Diego, said that Hogan’s evidence will be investigated “as a citizen’s complaint,” but that no action will be taken by the agency until a determination is made that there is some substance to the complaint.

She said she expects to view the site, part of an industrial tract in southwestern San Marcos, then “confer with state and federal resource agencies” before making any decision on whether to take action.

A County Water Authority consultant’s survey of the area showed no sensitive sites in the pipeline path, which led to the permit exemption.

Stine said if there is any indication of vernal pool damage, the water agency will order mitigation measures.

Vernal pools are shallow depressions in the ground that fill with water during winter rains and support an ecosystem of tiny endangered plants and organisms. Among the endangered species found in vernal pools are mesa mint, Orcutt grass and coyote thistle.

Hogan said that 97% of the vernal pools in San Diego County already have been destroyed by construction and farming operations.