By John Maybury
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Pacifica's Big Dig begins today, June 15, to give
San Pedro Creek a total makeover.
With several million in federal and state funds
firmly in hand, the city has hired Power Engineering
of Alameda to remove non-native eucalyptus trees
and German ivy, raise the streambed (thalwag is
the technical term) 10 to 15 feet, and reshape
the banks from deep and steep to low and wide.
Once engineers have returned the creek to a more
natural, slow, meandering flow (such as it enjoyed
before man began straightening it for agriculture
and housing), arborists will replant the banks
with native trees (willow, alder, dogwood, elderberry)
and install temporary (five year) water sprinklers
to help the new growth take root.
This summer's bulldozing
and earthmoving runs from June 15 to October 15,
mainly in the blocks downstream from Capistrano
Street bridge and alongside the Creekside townhouses.
Work will begin weekdays at the agonizing (for
night owls and late sleepers) hour of 7 a.m. Public
Works Director Scott Holmes says it will be tough
for residents at first but worth it in the long
run. Water trucks will soak the area to cut down
on dust.
The creek's new look will be very similar to San
Pedro Terrace wetlands behind Linda Mar shopping
center. A side benefit of re-vegetation will be
a tenfold increase in the number of bird species.
Birds don't much care for eucalyptus trees, and
Holmes predicts that the four or five species now
seen along the creek will become 40 or 50 different
species.
Cut-down trees
will be turned upside down and pounded into the
streambed like giant toothpicks to build up the
bottom and anchor the new growth against erosion.
Giant two-ton boulders, existing wire baskets (gabions),
rock weirs, and J-hooks also will be used to raise
and redirect the streambed.
Since the Army Corps of
Engineers channeled the creek some 50 years ago
in a flood-control-straight line down to the ocean,
the unnaturally high-velocity creek has chewed
its way at least15 feet down into the soft sediment,
creating steep, unstable banks covered with exotic
weeds and toxic ivy, inhospitable to the 300 or
so steelhead that spawn in the creek. Much of this
removed vegetation will be ground up thoroughly
and used to create new terraces lining the floodplain.
One major
accomplishment of this massive project will be
to capture all the fish and keep them safe above
and below the project, diverting the water by pipeline
while the digging and rebuilding go on. Licensed
professional herpetologists will wrangle endangered
species of frogs and snakes that live along the
creek. Skunks and raccoons may have to fend for
themselves.
(By the way, poachers are a
serious problem for the protected steelhead population.
If you witness any poaching in the creek, call
Pacifica's code enforcement officer Jason Lo at
738-7342 or 738-7343.)
Part of the project involves removing the old,
outdated fish ladders at Capistrano and replacing
them with new and improved structures to promote
fish migration and habitat.
San Pedro Creek has
led a precarious existence ever since the human
species began settling this valley. American Indians,
Spanish monks, and Italian artichoke farmers were
probably gentler on the environment than current
residents, who fling dog feces over their back
fences into the creek; build 5,000 cheap tarpaper
sewer lines that leak into the creek; and do really
stupid human tricks like dumping 200 dozen eggs
down a storm drain leading into the creek. With
friends like these, San Pedro Creek doesn't need
any enemies.
Capistrano Street over the
bridge likely will close during the project. Heavy
equipment will enter the creek from a marshaling
yard behind Sanchez Art Center.
The San Pedro
Creek Coalition of citizen volunteers, including
homeowners along the creek, has been studying and
protecting the creek for many years, and has had
major input into planning for this project. Permits
and approvals for the work come from California
Department of Fish and Game, San Francisco Regional
Water Quality Control Board, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and
National Marine Fisheries Service.