Caltrans Damages Habitat of Imperiled Animals : Environment: Desert work prompts second complaint in five months against transportation agency. Criminal charges are planned in first case and possible in latest one.

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

Caltrans 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 California Department of Fish and Game.

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

In November, fish and game officials discovered that Caltrans crews put an estimated 14 million pounds of ground 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 state 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 construction 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 construction crews were unaware of any problems with endangered species.

“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,” said Nick Davies, Caltrans’ deputy district director for construction. “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.”

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

Gordan Cribbs, Fish and Game’s regional patrol chief, said he is frustrated that Caltrans caused environmental problems so soon after the Deep Creek incident. He said it shows that the state transportation agency needs to better ensure that its projects conform with all environmental laws.

“These are setbacks that bother us. 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,” Cribbs said. “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 inhabited by Mojave 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 destruction 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. Caltrans should have talked to us and there should have been a biologist present before they did any work,” said Ray Bransfield, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Ventura, which handles the desert area.

Fish and Game officials said the draining of the spring was probably stopped in time, but that the wash was torn up.

“I can’t say definitely it (the construction) took a tortoise, 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 burrows there” where tortoises live, Giusti said.

Caltrans officials say the wash was only about 50 feet of their 20-mile-long improvement project along the desert portion of California 18, and that the rest of the project posed no environmental threats because construction did not leave the roadway.