Aliso Creek Is Big Water Hazard at Golf Course : Environment: Six months after rainstorms caused the stream to pour onto nearby resort, officials don’t know what to do to solve the overflow problem.

SOUTH LAGUNA — Six months later, it is as if the flood never happened.

The tons of rubble and silt deposited by February’s rainstorms onto the Aliso Creek Golf Course have been cleared, and golfers say the greens are pool-table smooth again.

But general manager Ed Slymen still turns a nervous eye to Aliso Creek, a normally placid 19-mile-long tributary that experts say is a flood disaster waiting to happen.

“The danger hasn’t gone away,” he said, “and neither has the problem.”

It took four months and about $3 million to repair the golf course and resort, but without serious renovation efforts to repair Aliso Creek, the work could be undone by the next heavy rainstorm, Slymen said.

Making the creek more flood-resistant has turned into a complex task because many private parties own a piece of the creek and several state and local agencies have some control. Frustrated by the delay, the golf course owners have filed a $2.1-million claim against the county.

“We have quite actively sought the county’s help to enforce its policies of having retarding basins” to control floods, Slymen said. “Quite frankly, our requests have fallen on deaf ears. (The county) has denied all liability.”

County officials say the golf course, constructed in the early 1950s, was built on a flood plain. During February’s rains, “the channel performed exactly as we thought it would,” said Dennis Bunker, a county official. “The problem is that the golf course is built on a flood plain. It’s going to flood on that golf course during intense rains no matter what.”

Without warning on Feb. 12, heavy rains poured into Aliso Creek and turned the normally modest tributary into a wall of water. The flood pounded the resort, demolishing bridges, stranding guests in their rooms and pouring tons of debris onto the nine-hole golf course.

Starting by Cook’s Corner near Trabuco Canyon, the creek is broad--up to 100 feet wide in some places--and doesn’t pose a problem until it hits narrow Aliso Canyon and shrinks to about 30 feet in width while gaining in speed.

The creek also passes vast housing developments, some of which are still under construction. Runoff has seriously eroded the creek in some places, exposing tree roots and water pipes.

Debris from the construction sites overseen by the county also caused major damage to the golf course, as material such as 12-foot wood beams crashed into the bridges and hotel, according to Slymen.

“We carted off 250 tons of rubble, not including the silt,” he said.

In the lawsuit, the owners claim the county is responsible for the damage because it is in charge of monitoring grading and construction. But county officials say they should not be held responsible for alleged carelessness by developers. In addition, an unusual amount of vegetation accumulated in the creek bed over the last several dry seasons, according to county officials. And when the series of storms hit the area in February, the sudden flow of water flushed tons of silt and other material down the creek.

South Coast Water District officials were also caught by surprise by the flood. When the raging waters demolished a 95-foot bridge at their Aliso Woods Canyon sewage treatment plant, workers had to be evacuated by helicopter.

While acknowledging that runoff from construction sites has contributed to the flood problem, water district manager Mike Dunbar said some improvements that have been discussed, such as lining the creek with concrete, might be too extreme.

“A lot of people enjoy the creek in its natural state,” he said. “If you lined the channel, it would take something away from the creek.”

Dunbar said the bottom line is that “though I hate to say it, that golf course was built on the flood plain. . . . Maybe the creek is saying, ‘I’ve been here first, maybe you guys should be leaving.’ ”

In any case, say county officials, it would take at least two years before any mitigation measures could be taken. Any work on a flood channel must also be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Fish and Game.

Something needs to be done, Slymen said, because the flooding in February was way out of proportion to the amount of rain.

“In the late 1960s and early 1970s, you could walk across that creek at certain times,” he said. “Now there’s water there year around.”

Laguna Beach City Manager Kenneth C. Frank was surprised by the ferocity of the February flood, commenting shortly afterward that it “was the worst I’ve seen in my 12 years here.”

Dunbar advocates starting an educational program for property owners and developers along the length of Aliso Creek.

But as far as controlling the flooding, “something needs to be done,” Dunbar said. “I’m just not sure what it is.”