CONSERVATION GROUPS TO SUE ARMY CORPS SANTA CLARA RIVER DEVELOPMENT AT ISSUE.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Worried that the Santa Clara River could end up as paved and polluted as the Los Angeles River, a group of environmentalists plans to file suit today charging that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has rubber-stamped development along the natural waterway without studying the ecological impacts.

Running 100 miles from the hills of Acton to the ocean near Oxnard, the Santa Clara River is one of Southern California's last natural waterways.

But in the past few years, the corps has issued 120 permits to fill wetlands, build over the floodplain and pave the sides of the Santa Clara River in concrete.

Environmentalists contend that the corps has not studied the cumulative impact of all that construction in and along the river. They believe the changes damage the habitat of rare and endangered plants and animals, and can reduce the amount of river water that seeps into the groundwater basin.

``Most of the river remains in a natural state. Creatures are still living there. We don't think it's too late,'' said Ileene Anderson, an ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups filing the lawsuit.

``It's not like we're asking for no development. We're just asking for smart development, where we can build things without putting concrete in the river.''

Army Corps of Engineers officials said they couldn't comment on the anticipated lawsuit, but did defend their permitting process.

``Our focus is protecting wetlands. We have a difficult job of trying to strike the right balance between environmental concern and human development,'' said corps spokesman Jay Field. ``Sometimes people have to look at the other side of the coin that property owners have some right to do what they seek to do with their land.''

Regulatory Branch Chief Dave Castanon explained that the agency has recognized the development pressure on the river, and refused to issue permits to The Newhall Land and Farming Company a decade ago until the company developed a long-term plan to protect the river as it prepares to build the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch.

``We have a lot better handle on (the cumulative impacts) than we've ever had before,'' he said.

The corps is also a partner in an $8.2 million study looking at how best to protect the 1,600-square-mile Santa Clara River watershed.

But river advocates warn that the study could come too late. They say the corps and other water quality agencies are allowing developers to build in the floodplain and in areas too close to the river - opening the door to flood-control issues and storm-water pollution problems. ``(Development) can be done in a way that doesn't cause negative impacts, that doesn't put us in the situation we're in with Los Angeles,'' said Melanie Winter with The River Project.

``We just had to pass a half-billion-dollar Proposition O bond for water quality, and that's just the first of many half-a-billion-plus bonds. (Santa Clarita) can avoid those problems and the money it costs to fix those problems.''

The lawsuit is to be filed today in the U.S. District Court's Central Division in Los Angeles by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Santa Clara River and the Wishtoyo Foundation/Ventura Coastkeeper.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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SANTA CLARA RIVER

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