San Onofre State Beach - Toll Road Controversy

Toll Road Controversy

The Transportation Corridor Agency seeks to construct a six lane toll highway (graded for eight lanes) through San Onofre State Beach/Park and a habitat reserve in Orange County, joining the San Diego Freeway at the Trestles surf break. The Toll Road is supported by business groups and some public officials in Orange County as both a commercial enterprise and a way to ease future traffic congestion. The toll road is opposed by more than two dozen of California’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., thirty-eight California legislators including California's United States Senator Barbara Boxer, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, Surfrider Foundation, Save Trestles, the California State Parks Foundation, the California State Park and Recreation Commission, the Native American United Coalition to Protect Panhe, The City Project, the Save San Onofre Coalition, and others. Opponents that construction and operation of the toll road would cause irreversible environmental damage, the loss of park camping and recreational areas, and the loss of a site sacred to Native Americans (Panhe), citing studies that show that traffic congestion would actually increase on the San Diego Freeway if the toll road were built through San Onofre Beach. A 2007 survey of Orange County voters revealed that while 52% favored some kind of toll road, 66% opposed a route that would cut through San Onofre State Park. As part of the effort, at least four groups filed lawsuits with the goal of preventing the toll road from passing through San Onofre State Beach.

On February 6, 2008 the California Coastal Commission denied a Coastal Permit for the route proposed by the TCA that would cut through San Onofre and the reserve, saying that of the eight proposals considered, the San Onofre route was the most environmentally damaging. Had a permit been granted, the 241 Toll Road would have been the first to run through a California state park. The TCA appealed the Coastal Commission's decision to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), calling the highway a matter of national security. On December 18, 2008, the George W. Bush Administration denied TCA’s appeal, noting that construction through San Onofre was inconsistent with the California Coastal Act. In a release, the DOC stated that at least one reasonable alternative to the project existed, and that the project was not necessary in the interest of national security.

The steelhead trout in San Mateo Creek (the last free-flowing stream in the area), its tributaries, and in the waters off Trestles and San Onofre have been identified by environmentalists as one of several species that would suffer irreparable harm if the toll road were built along the proposed route though San Onofre State Beach, and in particular, the San Mateo campground and San Mateo Creek areas. In February, 1999 Southern Steelhead Trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) were discovered in the creek by Toby Shackelford, making San Mateo Creek the only watercourse south of Malibu Creek in Los Angeles County to host this endanged species. Steelhead have historically spawned in the creek, whose upper reaches also support a population of rainbow trout, the form taken by Oncorhyncus mykiss when it remains land-locked. There are about 11 miles (18 km) of streams in the watershed that provide suitable habitat for steelhead trout. Significantly, DNA analysis has shown that San Mateo Creek steelhead are genetically native southern steelhead, and not hatchery stocked fish. In February 2010, San Onofre State Park officers discovered a Golden Beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) at the river mouth of the San Mateo Creek. According to State Parks officials, the species was once native to the San Mateo Creek area. They say that the animal surely came from one of the streams that flows into the San Mateo Creek. A report on the fauna of San Diego County by Dr. David Hoffman in 1866 stated "Of the animal kingdom we have a fair variety: the grizzly bear, the antelope, the deer, the polecat, the beaver, the wildcat, the otter, the fox, the badger, the hare, the squirrel, and coyotes innumerable." Environmentalists make the point that the beaver is part of a thriving watershed ecosystem that deserves the highest level of protection.