California Coast & Ocean

"Gutting of the Park"
When President Richard Nixon and Governor Ronald Reagan worked to create San Onofre State Beach, they intended it to be--like any state park--protected in perpetuity, even though the land still belonged to the Navy. Nevertheless, Orange County plans to build a toll road through it. Foothill-South, as it is called, would be a 16-mile, multi-lane highway, extending the Foothill toll road from its current terminus at Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to I-5 just south of San Clemente.

The damage to San Onofre State Beach could be catastrophic. State Parks Director Ruth Coleman has described it as a "gutting of the park," and she and other officials have said that State Parks might choose to abandon the inland portion of San Onofre State Beach if the road is built. "We are not interested in maintaining some remnants," said Rich Rozzelle, superintendent for the Orange Coast District.

Now in the preliminary design stage, the project still faces significant permit and other hurdles. Three lawsuits to stop the project--two by the State Attorney General and one by a coalition of environmental, recreational, and surfing organizations--have been brought against the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Authority (TCA), the joint powers agency created by the County and city governments to build and operate the road. The TCA, however, is proceeding with the design work and has collected field data, including boring for soil samples, in the park without State Parks permission. TCA spokeswoman Jennifer Seaton said that the agency obtained permission to drill in the state park "from the landowner--the military."

The toll road would have four lanes at first but is being designed for expansion to six. The most recent cost estimate for the project is $875 million. It would run through the watersheds of both San Mateo Creek and one of its main tributaries, Cristianitos Creek; through the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy, a privately owned wilderness reserve with more than 6,000 coast live oak trees; and through the middle of the inland section of San Onofre State Beach, cutting off wildlife and recreational corridors. The road would pass within 200 feet of the nearest campsite in San Mateo Campground and through the ancient village of Panhe, a Native American heritage site where the Juaneño people still hold ceremonies, coming within a few feet of a sacred burial site. Crossing San Mateo Creek on an elevated roadway, it would merge with I-5 near the Trestles Wetland Natural Preserve at the mouth of the creek. The road would travel through the park for approximately four miles and occupy more than 300 of its 2,189 acres.

Sedimentation and polluted runoff from the highway could degrade water quality both in the stream and offshore, affecting surfers, swimmers, and waders as well as steelhead. Rozzelle, who manages 17 miles of coastline for State Parks' Orange Coast District, said the beaches around San Mateo Creek are the only ones that do not have water quality problems. Not yet.

"Putting a road down the throat of a pristine watershed is not a great idea for the coast," said Mark Rauscher of the Surfrider Foundation. The increased runoff and sedimentation would not only damage water quality, Rauscher said, but would alter the flow of sand to the surf breaks at Trestles, potentially altering the waves' formation.