News Release 07-02
US Army Corps Of Engineers
April 9, 2007 Immediate

Jay Field
Telephone: (213) 452-3920
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Corps Approves Special Area Management Plan for Orange County Watersheds

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (April 9, 2007) -- In what is being heralded as a major decision in comprehensive watershed study, planning and permitting, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, recently approved a Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) for the San Juan and Western San Mateo Creek watersheds in southern Orange County -- the first SAMP to be approved within the state of California.

Permitting under Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act, as well as aquatic resources preservation, restoration and management, will now be implemented on a comprehensive basis for the two watersheds, which encompass about 112,000 acres within Orange County.

“This SAMP demonstrates the commitment both public and private interests made to comprehensive aquatic resource protection over the long term,” said David Castanon, Chief of the Regulatory Division for the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  “It also underscores the importance that the Corps of Engineers places on watershed-level management of aquatic resources.”

A SAMP is a voluntary watershed-level planning and permitting process involving local landowners and public agencies which seek permit coverage under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.  The first participants in the SAMP are Rancho Mission Viejo and the Santa Margarita Water District.  The purpose of the SAMP is to provide for reasonable economic development and the protection and long-term management of sensitive aquatic resources (biological and hydrological), while also avoiding impacts to wetlands.  The SAMP seeks to provide protection to wetlands, streams, and riparian areas that complements protection to threatened and endangered species provided by the Southern Subregion Habitat Conservation Plan finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, pursuant to the federal Endangered Species Act, in January 2007.

Through the newly approved SAMP for the San Juan Creek and Western San Mateo watersheds, the Corps will now allow the following:

• Reasonable economic development through one or more permitting procedures which provide regulatory predictability and incentives for comprehensive resource protection, management and restoration over the long term,
• On a voluntary basis, establishment of an Aquatic Resources Conservation Program which includes preservation, restoration and management of aquatic resources, and
• Minimization of individual and cumulative aquatic resource impacts of future projects within the SAMP watershed by relating permitting for future activities to the SAMP Aquatic Resources Conservation Program.

“In areas where environmental degradation is extreme, such as Southern California, the SAMP offers a unique vehicle to provide a much greater degree of protection for the aquatic ecosystem,” said Mark Durham, the Regulatory supervisor who has worked on this SAMP since its inception in 1999.  Durham said the SAMP represents a newly created national model to administer Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.  “Among its benefits are that it raises the standard of avoiding and minimizing impacts, and it provides superior mitigation when impacts are unavoidable,” he said.  “It also gives us, the regulating agency, a means of dealing with the ever-growing legal pitfall of cumulative impacts to Waters of the U.S. that we experience here.”

Castanon praised the SAMP team that included other federal and state resource agencies, as well as Santa Margarita Water District and Rancho Mission Viejo participants, for their efforts to comprehensively study and responsibly plan for development and environmental conservation of these lands.

“Together, we achieved a balance between reasonable economic development and broad-scale aquatic resources conservation.

This is a true “win-win” for everyone, including future generations,” Castanon said.  “We look forward to similar efforts among additional SAMP participants.”

The San Juan Watershed in Orange County is approximately 158 square miles (101,000 acres) and extends from the north at the Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains to the Pacific Ocean at Doheny State Beach near Dana Point Harbor.  The western portion of the vast San Mateo Creek Watershed is approximately 17 square miles (11,000 acres).  Major named streams within the SAMP study area include San Juan Creek, Bell Canyon Creek, Cristianitos Creek, La Paz Creek and Gabino Creek.

The Corps is also developing several other SAMPs.  In Orange County, the San Diego Creek Watershed SAMP is nearing completion with a draft Environmental Impact Statement due out for public review in several months.  The other two SAMPs are focused on the Otay Creek Watershed in San Diego County and the San Jacinto and Santa Margarita River Watersheds in western Riverside County.

Corps SAMP Program Manager Dr. Jae Chung said, “The completion of the San Juan and San Mateo Creek Watershed SAMP represents a much more effective way of regulating development activities in wetlands and other aquatic resources under the Clean Water Act.  With this landscape-level analysis, we can provide the public with the information they need to know where development will cause the least damage to wetlands and aquatic resources.

For further information, please contact the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, at (213) 452-3333, or visit our Website at www.spl.usace.army.mil.

###