O.C. Coastal Project Sparks Objections

The Irvine Co. is proudly advertising Crystal Cove, its latest planned community, as an 800-home jewel to be set among 10,000 acres of carefully protected wild lands.

But federal and state officials are sounding alarms about potential effects of the huge new development, which is being built next to and upstream from Crystal Cove State Park, and are questioning a controversial approval that may be granted to the developer.

Overriding written objections from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers said this week that once the project gains approval from state water quality officials, the corps plans to grant the Irvine Co. a permit to fill in or alter up to six miles of the Muddy Canyon and Los Trancos Canyon creeks and their tributaries.

A Fish and Wildlife memo says that is 600 times the length of stream bed that federal law allows to be affected under a national permitting process.

But the corps says it also considers the type of stream bed in making its decisions.

“I don’t remember anything this big,” said Rebecca Tuden, the EPA analyst who reviewed and objected to the permit application. “This is not a minimal impact. We think it’s going to have major effects downstream.”

She said there could be irrevocable loss of plants and wildlife both within the development and on the parkland and beaches below. Most of the runoff from the development would be funneled into Muddy Canyon Creek, then run through part of the state park--one of the largest remaining pieces of natural coastal terrain in Southern California--and spill into the Pacific Ocean.

Irvine Co. officials say the project is a sophisticated, environmentally sound one, with extensive measures for protection of wildlife and water.

“This is one of the most studied and carefully planned coastal communities in Southern California,” spokesman Paul Kranhold said. “It’s been in the planning stages for 30 years.”

He said a mile-wide wildlife corridor was set aside at the top of the project area, along with other preserved lands, in exchange for the right to build the community of million-dollar homes.

Sat Tamaribuchi, the company’s vice president for environmental affairs, said the six miles of affected stream bed is mostly a spider web of dry washes and ruts across the property that fill only right after storms, and that less than three acres of wetland or active stream bed would be touched.

“That six miles sounds huge, but I would guess there’s 100 miles of dry wash we’re not touching” in the preserved areas, he said.

The site is being carved out of scenic hills on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach.

Drivers, joggers and bikers long used to birds wheeling above the bluffs are growing accustomed to another familiar Orange County sight: the beep-beep-beep of heavy machinery backing up, the grind of bulldozers and the sprouting of construction trailers on the torn-up hills. The first homes will be ready for sale in about a year if construction proceeds as planned.

Irvine Co. consultants, in an environmental impact report last year, said that although the residential, hotel and shopping center project would spoil some views from the state park, it would do minimal damage to streams and wildlife.

“While the people who use this property might be upset because they are viewing homes instead of hillsides,” Kranhold said, “what they need to recognize is that the company has given up its development rights on 78% of the Newport coast . . . in exchange for the right to develop in these small areas.”

The company’s environmental report concluded that water runs in the creeks only occasionally and that specially constructed drain pipes into Muddy Canyon Creek, along with a holding pond, could handle runoff, avoiding flooding and erosion below.

Also open to debate is the question of water quality because of pesticides, fertilizers, pet waste and other urban runoff that would drain through the park, across the beach and into the ocean.

“Once they get all those homes built, the runoff from the gutters, the roofs, the streets has got nowhere to go but into the state park,” said senior Crystal Cove Ranger Michael Eaton. “I’m worried that our tide pools may be buried.”

Other grading of the site in past years resulted in 3-mile-long sediment plumes in the ocean, according to state park ecologist David Pryor. He said that could be beneficial, because it could add sand to the beach, but that it could also have adverse effects.

“Worst-case scenario is we have to close down portions of the beach because of high bacteria” during the peak summer season, he said, because that is also when nuisance pollutants such as lawn fertilizers or oil from home garages could end up being dumped into the drainage system.

Some irrigation runoff is unavoidable, Tamaribuchi said. But much of the irrigation waste will dissipate on the site, he said, rather than travel to the ocean, because the company is altering relatively little of Muddy Canyon Creek and is creating additional wetlands.

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Can’t Stop the Rain

Federal and state regulators are worried about the effects irrigation runoff and pollutants from a new development in Orange County called Crystal Cove will have on nearby creeks and beaches.

Source: Irvine Co.

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times