Caltrans Work Hurt Desert, Agency Says

Upset by what they call a continued disregard for environmental laws, state wildlife officials say Caltrans has damaged areas of the California desert in San Bernardino County that are home to several endangered animals, including an ailing species of tortoise.

State Department of Transportation crews bulldozed a desert wash in Lucerne Valley last month and started to drain a nearby desert spring while improving California 18 between Big Bear and Victorville, according to officials from the state Department of Fish and Game.

Wildlife officials said the new allegations have been turned over to the district attorney’s office in San Bernardino County as part of a continuing criminal investigation of alleged pollution and ecological damage by Caltrans along California 18, which winds through the mountains and desert.

In November, state Department of Fish and Game officials discovered that Caltrans crews put an estimated 14 million pounds of asphalt into and alongside five miles of Deep Creek--a state-protected wild trout stream in the San Bernardino Mountains--and two nearby tributaries of Big Bear Lake.

“This is more of Caltrans’ typical attitude, that they don’t have to comply with the law,” said Mike Giusti, a Fish and Game biologist. “But (now), you’re dealing with endangered species, not just a stream-bed alteration.”

Caltrans crews were ordered two weeks ago to shut down their work in Lucerne Valley, where they were expanding a culvert.

Caltrans officials are apologetic, acknowledging that they made a mistake. They said the culvert project somehow missed the attention of their environmental staff, so crews were unaware of any problems with endangered species.

Nick Davies, Caltrans’ deputy district director for construction, said: “That culvert extension should have been picked up--someone should have asked if it would cause any (environmental) problems. For whatever reason, that was missed, and we failed to send it back into the environmental process.

“That’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation of why it happened. That’s the kind of thing we are trying to prevent from doing again,” he said.

Davies said Caltrans stopped work immediately and is seeking all needed environmental permits. “We won’t touch that area again until we do everything on their (Fish and Game’s) terms,” he said.

Gordan Cribbs, Fish and Game’s regional patrol chief, said he is frustrated that Caltrans is continuing to cause environmental problems so soon after the Deep Creek incident.

He said it shows that Caltrans needs to ensure that its projects conform with environmental laws.

“These are setbacks that bother us,” Cribbs said. “It’s frustrating because we have a sister agency that, since last November, we’ve been attempting to bring on board to protect our resources. I think there needs to be assurances at Caltrans on a statewide basis that environmental issues are being addressed.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph Johns, who is handling the Caltrans case, did not return phone calls from The Times. He said in February that he plans to file at least 50 criminal counts against Caltrans and two contractors for the earlier incidents at Deep Creek and Big Bear Lake.

The wash in Lucerne Valley is popular with Mohave ground squirrels and desert tortoises, which are declining rapidly because of disease and human activity, such as construction, vandalism and off-road recreation. The desert spring feeds a marsh inhabited by the least Bell’s vireo, a small songbird.

Federal and state laws prohibit harm to endangered species, including loss of significant habitat. The tortoise and bird are on the national and state endangered lists, while the squirrel is on the state’s list.

“We had no clue this was happening,” said Ray Bransfield, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Ventura, which handles the desert area. “Caltrans should have talked to us, and there should have been a biologist present before they did any work.

“It does raise a question about Caltrans if something happened at Deep Creek and then something is happening in Lucerne Valley,” he said. “After I hear all the facts, it may warrant a letter to Caltrans saying, ‘Why aren’t you talking to us? You know better.’ ”

Fish and Game officials said they do not know whether animals were harmed. They said that the draining of the spring was probably stopped in time but that the wash was torn up.

“I can’t say definitely it (construction) took a tortoise,” Giusti said, “but the Lucerne Valley has one of the highest tortoise populations around. They like to be around washes, and there’s a good probability there were (tortoise) burrows there.”

Caltrans officials said the wash made up only about 50 feet of their 20-mile-long project along the desert stretch of California 18 and that the rest of the project posed no environmental threats because there was no construction off the roadway.

Fish and Game officials are also concerned about another new discovery: a two-foot-deep layer of powdered asphalt buried alongside the highway in Metcalf Creek, one of the few remaining trout spawning streams that flow out of Big Bear Lake.

Caltrans contractors were supposed to put clean fill there, not asphalt, Giusti said. A report on that discovery will also be turned over to the district attorney.

The confrontation between the two state agencies began in late November, when a Fish and Game warden based in Big Bear--Rick Coelho--said he found the ground-up asphalt at Deep Creek.

Caltrans officials said that the material was properly placed along the shoulder for the newly surfaced road and that some material got in the creek accidentally.

Coelho, however, said Caltrans contractors used trucks and conveyor belts to dump the material.

The agencies feuded for two months before Caltrans agreed to start the cleanup in mid-January. Snowstorms in the mountains, however, have halted the cleanup, and about 90% of the powdered asphalt remains, Giusti said.

“You’re probably looking at six months to a year before it’s cleaned up, and in the meantime all the particles will be washed into the stream,” he said. “Nobody really knows how this powdered asphalt will affect that stream. You have a solid form of oil now laying on the bottom.”

Caltrans’ Davies said the desert incident “bears no resemblance” to the Deep Creek problem, but his agency’s San Bernardino office is reviewing all projects for any environmental problems.

“As an agency, if we’ve got a problem, we’ve got to fix it, and we are,” he said.