Caltrans Starts Its Cleanup of Stream : Pollution: Workers dig through snow to remove asphalt and other material that was dumped in Deep Creek. Despite a commitment to get the work done, a confrontation between two state agencies is far from over.

In an effort to end a heated confrontation with state wildlife officials, Caltrans on Thursday began a major cleanup to remove asphalt and other highway debris dumped on a protected mountain trout stream.

Ken Steele, Caltrans’ district director in San Bernardino, said the work, which involves numerous culverts along 5 miles of Deep Creek, could take two weeks. The agency hired a contractor to use backhoes to dig through deep snow, and seven dump-truck loads of snow and asphalt were removed Thursday.

“Our commitment is to do as much as we can, as long as the weather holds,” Steele said, adding that a storm is forecast for Tuesday. “We may expand it to expedite it. . . . We’re using heavy machinery and it’s overkill from our perspective, but it’s indicative of our serious attempt to clean it up.”

Howard Sarasohn, deputy director of Fish and Game in Sacramento, said Thursday that his staff members who are overseeing the work told him they are pleased with it.

“The reports I got back are that Caltrans is doing what needs to be done to protect the environment and live up to the statutes,” he said.

The dispute, however, is far from over.

Fish and Game officials said they still plan to pursue misdemeanor charges against two Caltrans employees in San Bernardino as well as two contractors and one of the company’s employees. The charges will allege that they illegally polluted and altered Deep Creek, as well as two tributaries to Big Bear Lake. The regional water quality board also is investigating.

The confrontation between the two state agencies arose in late November, when Fish and Game Warden Rick Coelho, based in Big Bear, said he found millions of pounds of ground-up asphalt and other road debris dumped in and alongside Deep Creek, which runs parallel with Highway 18. The materials were removed from the winding mountain highway during resurfacing between Running Springs and Snow Valley ski resort last summer and fall.

Bear, deer, mountain lions and other animals inhabit the area of Deep Creek, which is a rare state-designated wild trout stream. No dead wildlife or fish have been reported, but the area is covered with several feet of snow, so the biological impact of the debris is unknown.

Fish and Game biologists fear that petroleum and toxic compounds in the materials are seeping into the water and could poison the aquatic life and vegetation. The water is black in many places, and tests have detected the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons, Coelho said.

Coelho and Fish and Game fisheries biologist Mike Giusti said the Deep Creek contamination is the worst case of stream pollution ever in Southern California.

Although Coelho said he repeatedly warned Caltrans crews to clean it up, top Caltrans officials said they did not understand how seriously Fish and Game was until a memo, dated Dec. 19, arrived ordering Caltrans to clean it up by Dec. 31.

Both sides said that strong words were exchanged between Caltrans engineers and Fish and Game staff.

“It was confrontational and emotional,” Steele said. “We’re up there trying to do a job, so when someone comes in and is critical and apparently has a different agenda, we resent their interference. Probably personalities got involved, very candidly.”

Nick Davies, a Caltrans deputy district director in San Bernardino in charge of construction, said the charges were overblown.

“I feel we are being accused of murder, and all we did was jaywalk,” he said. “But we’re willing to admit let’s get it out of there, and we’re trying very hard to do that.”

The transportation agency still maintains that most of the material is proper shoulder backing that will not be removed. Caltrans also contends that the material is not hazardous to the stream.

However, Steele conceded that some asphalt was accidentally placed improperly in and alongside Deep Creek in violation of a 6-year-old Caltrans policy.

“We do not believe it was an intentional violation, but we were sloppy in terms of not keeping the shoulder backing adjacent to lanes and letting it get too close to channel openings,” Steele said. “The culvert outlets are dry most of the year, and we have trouble identifying that as a stream.”

Much of the dispute seems to be over what constitutes the creek. Fish and Game officials, empowered with protecting the stream, say the areas are part of the protected stream bed under state law, while Caltrans considers it the highway shoulder.

Coelho was unavailable for comment Thursday because he was attending a funeral, while Giusti was on vacation and unavailable.

But in an interview Wednesday night, Coelho said he believes that removing just the material in the stream and culverts is not enough. He said the shoulder material should be eventually removed because it endangers the creek.

Sarasohn of Fish and Game said Caltrans will remove any shoulder backing that could fall into the creek, while the rest of it will be addressed later when the two agencies try to develop a statewide policy for putting asphalt on shoulders near creek beds.

Also, both agencies agreed that materials along the slopes will remain until the snow melts because of worker-safety issues.

Caltrans cannot estimate the cost of the cleanup since the crews will be paid by the hour.

Because heavy traffic is expected in area ski resorts over the three-day holiday weekend, little cleanup will occur this afternoon through Sunday, but crews will return on the holiday Monday. One lane of the two-lane road will be blocked to traffic during the work.