REGION: Feds say toll road won't trigger extinction

Coastal Commission official charges interference by Bush administration

By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Monday, May 5, 2008 9:09 PM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- Federal biologists have determined that the controversial toll road an agency wants to pave across San Onofre State Beach would not cause any animal to go extinct, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's conclusion conflicts sharply with some of the reasons the California Coastal Commission used in February to declare the road inconsistent with federal and state coastal laws.

San Onofre, located just south of the San Diego-Orange county line, is California's fifth most popular state park and home of the world-classing surfing break at Trestles Beach.

Dan Silver, executive director for the Endangered Habitats League in Los Angeles, said the federal government's conclusion does not mean the commission's 8-2 decision was wrong.

"People need to understand: This is not in any way in conflict with the Coastal Commission decision," Silver said.

Under California law, the state agency did not need to determine a species was in jeopardy in order to reject the toll road. Rather, it had to find that the project would substantially degrade sensitive habitat and that the site was not the only place the road could be built.

A short time after the decision, the project's proponent, Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, appealed the state's stinging rejection to the U.S. commerce secretary. A decision is expected late this year.

In making its decision, the commission determined the road would destroy 50 acres of sensitive habitat, pushing the Pacific pocket mouse to the brink of extinction and potentially wiping out the one surviving coastal population of the arroyo toad.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's conclusion that no critters would be harmed was spelled out in a 246-page "biological opinion" sent to the Federal Highway Administration late Friday. The document triggered sharply worded responses from the commission staff and environmentalists.

And it drew praise from the Transportation Corridor Agencies, promoters of the $875 million, 16-mile toll road that would cross San Onofre. The road would be an extension of Highway 241.

"I think it is another outrageous example of politics trumping science," said Peter Douglas, the commission's executive director, in a telephone interview from San Francisco. "It is clearly the record of this (Bush) administration to distort science for the benefit of developers who, I guess, have the ear of this administration."

Jane Hendron, the Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman, defended her agency's conclusion.

"This opinion was issued out of the Carlsbad office and we do stand behind it," Hendron said. "This document never left this office until such time that it was issued to the Federal Highway Administration. There's been no interference with the science behind our opinion."

In the past, the Carlsbad office has been villainized by developers, landowners and conservative congressmen as an agency that aggressively enforced the letter of environmental laws without using common sense or compassion.

The transportation agency cheered the report.

"It's a big step forward for the 241," said Jennifer Seaton, a spokeswoman for the toll-road builder. "It's important for us because, no matter what the criticism, this decision was made by an independent agency after rigorous examination of the facts."

Douglas said the Coastal Commission relied on an extensive examination in determining that not only were the world-class waves at Trestles and the solitude at San Mateo Campground threatened, but also the very existence of the Pacific pocket mouse.

One must remember, said Silver, of the Endangered Habitats League in Los Angeles, the species has only four homes left: On either side of San Mateo Creek, on Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base and at Dana Point in Orange County.

"The service is wrong, at least in regard to the pocket mouse," he said.

No, it's not, Hendron said.

"We certainly don't disagree the Pacific pocket mouse is a critically endangered species," she said. "However, we also have availed ourselves of all of the available science."

Hendron said the mouse isn't in danger of disappearing because the transportation agency has promised to provide extensive protections for the mouse's home along the creek. And she said the road will not trample any portion of that habitat.

"That's certainly not to say that there aren't impacts," Hendron said.

She said the highway would sacrifice a location for potentially expanding the mouse's habitat.

If built, the highway would complete a 67-mile toll road system Orange County began building about two decades ago. It would allow northbound North County motorists to drive on Highway 241 all the way from Interstate 5 at the San Diego-Orange county line to Highway 91 near Anaheim and Corona.

The agency expects to build the initial four-lane version of the road, not counting land costs and to expand it later to six lanes.

Besides the pocket mouse and toad, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the road would not harm the coastal California gnatcatcher bird, tidewater goby fish, least Bell's vireo bird, and the San Diego and Riverside fairy shrimp.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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