Caltrans Project Allegedly Killed Endangered Fish

State and federal wildlife investigators are preparing a case against Caltrans, alleging that a bridge-building job killed endangered fish and caused extensive damage to a critical trout stream in the Ventura County back country.

In what authorities say may be the worst case ever in the county of endangered species destruction, work crews suffocated seven fish, including steelhead trout, by placing a plastic sheet over the water to catch debris during replacement of a bridge on California 33 last year.

Twenty-five other fish were affected and had to be rescued from the same pool on tiny Tule Creek, an important spawning ground for steelhead in the mountains five miles north of Ojai, according to investigators.

In addition, heavy equipment operating along the stream bank caused damage to wildlife habitat far beyond what was necessary to complete the job, said Brett Schneider, deputy special agent in charge for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the federal Endangered Species Act, each activity that harms imperiled wildlife is punishable by up to $27,000 in fines and one year incarceration.

“Those steelhead are extremely important because they may be some of the only anadromous [saltwater-to-freshwater] steelhead we have left in the area,” Schneider said. “We have to use those fish to repopulate other streams. It’s a very serious violation.”

A Caltrans spokeswoman acknowledged that mistakes occurred when a Rancho Cordova contractor began the $3-million job to replace a 70-year-old bridge last August. The work, which has been temporarily halted, is expected to be completed by the end of summer.

Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said the agency is examining its procedures to ensure that similar violations never occur again. She said Caltrans officials reported the fish kill as soon as it was discovered.

“We take every measure we can to prevent either destroying or hurting habitat or [causing] any water pollution,” Tiritilli said. “We’re very conscious of environmental factors when we enter into these kinds of projects. We feel like we’re doing everything we can, but clearly more can be done.”

However, the case is not the first time Caltrans has been accused of destruction of protected animals and their habitat in Southern California.

In November 1992, wildlife investigators said that road crews dumped 14 million pounds of ground asphalt into and along a protected trout stream in the San Bernardino Mountains. Fifty criminal counts were prepared, but never filed, against the California Department of Transportation.

In March 1992, road crews allegedly bulldozed a wash and drained a spring in the Mojave Desert during repairs, damaging habitat used by the desert tortoise, a threatened species.

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Caltrans is repairing 10 bridges on California 33, which snakes through Los Padres National Forest between Ventura and Kern counties. Work on some of them has been halted while the department reevaluates its procedures.

Jim Edmondson of the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Coalition suggested that Caltrans compensate for its actions by removing road culverts that prevent steelhead from migrating from the Pacific to mountain streams.

“We may have fewer adult steelhead than we have condors,” Edmondson said. “It may just be a few fish that were killed, but every one of them is critically and vitally important to prevent extinction and to assist with recovery. Caltrans needs to know the severity of the action and that the consequences of these actions are steep.”

Steelhead are oceangoing rainbow trout that once thrived in inland waters from the Canadian border to near the Mexican border. Strong swimmers, they charge up streams to mate, and, unlike salmon, can make the trek more than once in a lifetime. Anglers covet them, and their fortitude embodies the character of the West’s wild rivers.

But steelhead populations have plummeted by 99% in Southern California, due largely to water diversions, dam and highway construction and pollution, scientists say. Steelhead proponents are working to tear down Matilija Dam near Ojai so the fish can reach 20 miles of prime spawning grounds deep in the national forest. Today, only a few hundred of the fish survive in the region, and the animal was declared endangered in 1997.

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The remaining fish hidden deep in the wilderness canyons of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties comprise critical brood stock that wildlife managers hope can someday be used to replenish streams, Schneider said.

Mindful of that, officials for the state Department of Fish and Game and the National Marine Fisheries Service scrutinized Caltrans’ bridge-building projects on California 33 and prescribed measures to ensure that construction activity would have minimal impact on steelhead and other sensitive species.

But the contractor and supervisors at Caltrans failed to follow those prescriptions, according to investigators. Specifically, they said fish swimming in a pool beneath the bridge were not relocated as required before work began and heavy equipment damaged or destroyed riparian habitat some 50 yards from the bridge, more than was permitted. Were it not for a chance visit by a private biologist who discovered the damage, many more fish would have perished, Schneider said. Tests of DNA and strontium showed that some of the dead fish were steelhead that once lived in the ocean.

“These folks never considered the fish in streams,” Schneider said. “No one has worried about the fish in the past, and that has to change. It’s definitely a wake-up call for Caltrans.”

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Investigators for the fisheries service and state Fish and Game Department expect to conclude their inquiry in about a month and submit their case to Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Laurel McLaughlin. Schneider would not say whether charges might be pursued against the contractor.

In the meantime, Caltrans is reviewing other road improvement projects to ensure that they do not cause harm to wildlife.

“We are working closely with the agencies to find out exactly how this incident occurred so we can take steps with our contractors so that something like this never happens again,” Tiritilli said.