Clearing Canyon by Truck Is Urged

The best way to remove tens of thousands of cubic yards of rock debris from a San Gabriel Mountains canyon is to construct a temporary road and haul the material out by truck, the U.S. Forest Service announced Friday.

After almost a year of waiting, the agency issued its environmental assessment report for the Rubio Canyon debris pile, pushing the above option as the best of five plans to restore the Angeles National Forest site north of Altadena that was buried under a landslide in 1998, when a water pipe replacement project went awry.

Today, the debris field, which stretches hundreds of feet and is estimated to be as deep as 100 feet in places, is a staggering sight, visible on a clear day from as far away as Torrance, according to some activists and hikers.

How the recommended cleanup, estimated to cost $1.5 million to $2 million, will be paid for is still under discussion. Rep. David Dreier (R-Glendora) is trying to appropriate some federal funds for the project. The Rubio Canon Land and Water Assn. controls a water pipeline in the canyon.

According to the Forest Service report, the debris pile was created when a contractor used explosives while working on the pipeline in 1998.

The pipeline had been damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and Federal Emergency Management Agency funds had been obtained to repair it, the Forest Service said. The Rubio Canon association, which has owned water rights to the canyon for more than 100 years, is responsible for the upkeep of its pipelines.

Association officials could not be reached for comment Friday. But in the past, they have disputed the Forest Service’s characterization of the chain of events that led to the debris pile and have called on FEMA to pay for the cleanup.

The Forest Service has said Rubio Canon got permission to construct a rock “bench” measuring 4 feet by 4 feet by 80 feet to hold the pipeline. But the project’s contractor overstepped those parameters, creating a much bigger bench, the service said. By the time the Forest Service examined the construction site, the canyon was swamped in rocks.

Trapped underneath are five or six once-pristine waterfalls, as well as some remnants of the old Mt. Lowe Railway.

The report, by the environmental consulting firm Jones and Stokes, presents five possible solutions.

“I think it does an excellent job of looking at all of the possibilities, or at least all the ones we and the public came up with,” said Rich Borden, a Forest Service planner.

“We picked five that are the most practical, and we looked at the impact of those,” said Borden. Among the options: taking no action and letting the rocks naturally work their way down the canyon into a debris basin; trying to manipulate some debris downstream via tractor; and completely removing the debris pile via a temporary road within the stream channel.

That alternative, which was added to Jones and Stokes’ original proposals late in the report cycle, is one reason for the report’s delay, Borden said.

Paul Ayers, a civil rights attorney who has become an advocate for the canyon’s restoration, said the Forest Service has learned a valuable lesson from the slides and their aftermath. “They’ve gone from being exploiters to being stewards,” he said earlier this year.

On Friday, he praised the report -- and the Forest Service’s conclusion that carting the rock out by truck is the best approach.

“The best thing in terms of historical and recreational usage is to get all the debris out,” Ayers said.

The public has until Jan. 31 to submit comments to the Forest Service about the report, which is available online at https://208.187.37.229/rubio.