Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor ruled that San Diego used the same argument in 2009 and couldn’t do so again.
government for a fence along the international border. San Diego officials said the conditions were worsened by the construction of a giant berm built by the U.S. The valley, which sits downstream from Tijuana, has long been prone to flooding. San Diegans for Open Government, a nonprofit advocacy group, took a similar position in October when it contested San Diego’s dredging plan for the Tijuana River Valley. “We are putting everybody on notice - every agency - that this exception is limited and should only be used when there is a true emergency,” Borak said. It also appealed work in Sorrento Valley and Nestor Creek to the State Water Resources Control Board. 30, the group sued San Diego to stop maintenance in Murphy Canyon Creek by alleging the city was “inappropriately invoking” an emergency exemption.
GENERALS ZERO HOUR UNOFFICIAL MAPS FULL
That case, won by the environmentalists, also turned on whether county officials had properly used an emergency exemption to avoid full environmental reviews. The foundation, formed in 2008, has taken an aggressive legal stance by challenging fireworks over waterways and a county fire-protection plan that involved clearing swathes of dead and dying trees from the backcountry. It’s just poor planning,” said Livia Borak, legal adviser to the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation in Encinitas. “That they haven’t done the adequate CEQA review is not our fault. They want full assessments of the work under the California Environmental Quality Act, a process that can take months. San Diego contends it didn’t need to produce a full environmental impact report for its most urgent channel-clearing projects this fall and winter because they present emergency conditions.Ĭonservationists and others said city leaders have known for years about the flood threats and can’t legitimately claim to be caught off-guard. The current conflict centers on a single word: emergency. Many flood channels follow natural courses, raising questions about how much vegetation should be left and how much should be removed to speed the flow of water to the ocean. In recent years, the system has come under increasing scrutiny by regulators and green groups partly because it includes rare wetland habitat. Storm drains across the region were developed piecemeal over decades, largely before the advent of environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act. There is no doubt about it,” said the Tijuana River Valley rancher.
“If we get some good rains, we are going to get flooded. In the meantime, residents like Dick Tynan are left to wait and wonder. It will set the standard for the entire region. They are negotiating a long-term blueprint for channel maintenance that may prevent another legal standoff a year from now. San Diego officials and environmentalists have wrestled for years about the proper balance between ecological safeguards and public safety. But they need a host of environmental agencies to sign off on the work, and the slow process has hampered efforts to reduce the backlog of clogged areas.
City crews want to clean out muck and plants that slow the flow of water and cause it to overtop storm drains. The main hazard is flooding of lowland areas such as Sorrento Valley and Chollas Creek - an issue that pops up every rainy season. “It’s way more than Tijuana now,” said Bill Harris, a spokesman for the city’s Storm Water Department. That decision targeted channel clearing in the Tijuana River Valley, but another lawsuit challenged a similar project in Murphy Canyon and water quality regulators recently rejected a handful of the city’s related requests. They are:įlood-control work across San Diego is stuck in the mud after a court ordered the city to stop for failing to do the proper environmental review. Several spots in San Diego are at risk of flooding this winter because San Diego city’s channel-clearing program has been halted by permit problems.
0 kommentar(er)
