CAMPGROUND TOLD TO OBEY BY EPA.

Byline: Daily News

ACTON - The owner of an Acton recreational-vehicle park and campground was ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to remove structures that divert the flow of the Santa Clara River to form a swimming area and to restore a section of the environmentally sensitive waterway.

Young Song, owner of the Robin's Nest Campground in Soledad Canyon, face fines and prosecution if he does not remove structures that diverted the flow of Southern California's last wild river, according to a press release from the EPA. He also must restore wetlands that were cleared and graded near the headwaters of the river that flows to the Pacific at Oxnard.

Young did not return a call seeking comment.

The orders followed an investigation initially conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles, which wants to protect the river, particularly the headwaters because the location provides a high-quality habitat for an endangered fish, the inch-long unarmored threespine stickleback.

``The Santa Clarita River is a very important resource, and this particular location is home to large populations of an endangered species,'' said Josh Burnam, a senior regulatory project manager with the corps' Los Angeles District.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Fish and Game and the state Regional Water Quality Control Board informed Young in 2003 of permit requirements for grading wetlands in relation to his plan to grade the wetlands and dam the river to create a swimming pool, according to the EPA statement.

In May 2005, after learning from a local resident that large-scale earth-moving activities were under way, the Corps of Engineers ordered Young to stop filling the river without the required Clean Water Act permit.

A recent inspection by EPA and the Corps of Engineers representatives found about 2.2 acres of the river and surrounding wetlands had been filled with water, compromising the flow, the EPA report said.

``Unauthorized filling of wetlands and damming of open waters can have serious environmental consequences,'' said Alexis Strauss, water division director for the EPA's Pacific Southwest Region. ``The Santa Clara River is one of the last free-flowing rivers in Southern California.''