Truck Rerouting Possible for Anti-Flood Project : Santa Ana River: Neighbors have swamped officials with complaints of noise, dust from vehicles.

Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers said Monday that they will try to reduce the dust, truck noise and traffic problems which residents and city officials have complained about since the project to widen the Santa Ana River began.

In recent months, officials of Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach have been flooded with calls from residents complaining about the dust and noise caused by trucks hauling sand and dirt from the riverbed.

“We’re working with the cities to identify alternative routes so (trucks) don’t use the same routes during the whole project,” said James A. Link, the corps’s chief of the Santa Ana River project. But he also said: “There’s not a lot we can do. You can’t fly the material out. The only way to do it is by truck.”

Work on the lower river channel has stopped for the winter, but will resume in April in Huntington Beach. The next phase of the project will extend from the San Diego Freeway north to Santa Ana and affect Fountain Valley. Work is expected to begin next summer, Link said.

The $1.4-billion river project, designed to provide better flood protection, extends from the lower channel in Orange County upstream into Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Link gave a presentation Monday about the river project to the Hydrology and Hydraulics Technical Group of the American Society of Civil Engineers at the Embassy Suites in Irvine.

Before his presentation, he said the Corps of Engineers is trying to work with cities to address concerns before construction starts in the spring.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can, but we can’t totally eliminate the impacts,” Link said. “That’s what it comes down to.”

But Fountain Valley officials said they plan to seek some relief.

“It’s exasperating,” Councilman John Collins said, because the city has no control over the federal government. “But we have to address the issues in some way, even though we seem to be handcuffed in what measures we can take in addressing the issues and mitigating the problems.”

City officials said they plan to forward a letter by next week to the Corps of Engineers, outlining their concerns and offering some solutions.

Councilwoman Laurann Cook said she would like to see alternative truck routes spelled out in the contract when the Corps of Engineers solicits bid for the phase of the project that affects Fountain Valley.

“We would like to be part of the negotiation with the hauler that there is a stipulation of routes so residents and streets are not the ones being totally impacted by the traffic, noise and dirt pollution,” Cook said.

“We want other cities and other major arterials looked at (because) one city should not bear the brunt of it,” she said.

Link said that during the contract process it will be possible to “come up with different routes so you don’t see for six months the same trucks on the same route.”

County officials said community meetings will be held in February and March to present the project to residents.

“Certainly, we want them to let us know if they’re seriously impacted, and if we can do something (for them) to let us know,” said Herbert I. Nakasone, manager of flood programs for the county’s Environmental Management Agency.

But he also added that some effects of construction are unavoidable: “Certainly, you have to expect some amount of inconvenience.”