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 fter a decade of debate, the state's water quality
watchdog agencies have joined with federal authorities to comply
with the Clean Water Act. Called the Plan for California's Nonpoint
Source Pollution Control Program, the long overdue partnership
between the state's Water Resource Control Board (and its local
boards) the Coastal Commission and the feds is intended to combat
the daily flow of chemicals and organic waste that contaminate
lowland canyons, creeks and wetlands emptying into waterways.
 In San
Diego, the quarrel over protecting Mission Bay, known as the
world's largest city aquatic park, has endured for nearly a half-century.
Even as identified sources of sewage spills add to ubiquitous
contaminants from the entire watershed, solutions to combat pollution
fouling San Diego's premier recreation park and source of tourist
dollars are being rehashed.
Instead of
waiting for government largess to pony up big bucks for vague
water quality programs, citizens can find ways of reducing the
effect of everyday runoff during dry weather. A good place to
start is with Rose Creek, a major source of pollution entering
Mission Bay. In addition to the creek's visibility as entryway
to beach communities, and averaging 300,000 vehicles every day
over its three bridges, Rose Canyon has a history of ecological
and economic significance.
Fed by tiny
seeps and springs from chaparral-covered highlands now part of
Scripps Ranch and the City of Poway, Rose Creek's corridor was
home to nearly every species of plant and animal inhabiting San
Diego's bioregion. City Founding Fathers developed manufacturing
facilities in Rose Canyon that depended on the creek for water
and provided jobs crucial to the growth of early San Diego.
The 45 sq.
mile watershed, which now includes federal, state, county and
city lands drained by Rose Creek and its major tributary, San
Clemente Creek, has not seen its remarkable fish species - Southern
steelhead for nearly seven decades. Timeworn gravel, used as
nests for spawning, are scant evidence of the silvery giants
whose yearly return were celebrated for millennia by San Diego's
original inhabitants, and later, European colonialists and early
Californians.
Today, as
Mission Bay's mainstream connector, Rose Creek is a conduit for
daily runoff that contributes to the brew that fouls Mission
Bay and its vast recreation-resort. From Scripps Ranch, La Jolla,
University City, Clairemont and Pacific Beach, consumer and industrial
product residue finds its way into the creek's 21-mile reach
through countless storm drains. The mix of chemicals and organic
waste that is flushed into curbside gutters from everywhere,
everyday, is known as nonpoint source pollution (NPS).
Using Rose
Creek as an educational demonstration site for treating NPS offers
many advantages. The heavily traveled and populated area is in
the heart of the city's coastal core and is adjacent to nearly
24 schools and colleges. What's more, San Diego's Regional Water
Quality Control Board has targeted Rose Creek's toxicity, and
along with the state's Resources Agency and Dept. of Transportation,
is supporting the Nature School's wetland ecology and watershed
education activities as part of the Rose Creek Restoration and
Nature Education Preserve, an ongoing volunteer project honored
by two California governors for citizen initiative.
One method
of treating dry weather runoff consists of creating small pools
or basins to collect daily discharge from street culverts. By
detaining what drains from community storm gutters, Rose Creek's
marsh plants and animals can help filter pollutants before they
reach Mission Bay. Constructs of rock, earth and native wetland
species in conjunction with naturally occurring microscopic organisms,
are known as bioengineering. Such ecologic systems have been
working to clean water for countless millennia. It's time to
give nature a chance to begin the process of healing our beaches
and bays.
Collaboration
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with state agencies
represents the right move to protect coastal systems which serve
as fish and wildlife nurseries, bird sanctuaries and whose biofil-tration
function is crucial to water quality and aquatic recreation.
Citizens too, have a responsibility for environmental quality
by reducing NPS through careful use of consumer products and
proper disposal of hazardous materials.
Besides supporting
neighborhood programs that teach people to care about what they
allow to enter storm drains, public agencies ought to be held
accountable for frequent sewage spills.
Instead of
waiting years for big budget fixes like automated sewer interceptor
diversions, installing catch basins in canyon wetlands and creeks
is an immediate, affordable way to treat ordinary urban runoff.
San Diegans should not delay in putting into place doable measures
to save aquatic habitats and recreational waters from harmful
contaminants. Catch basins are good for water resources and show
what public-minded residents can do for community quality of
life.
A water treatment
demonstration planned by local conservationists, The Nature School,
is named STAR, Simple Technology Against Runoff. The project
intends to use natural materials in "do-it-yourself"
catch basins (bioengineered fascines) installed in Rose Creek
as a compass to guide affordable solutions throughout the county.
For a city
dependent on coastal water resources for its way of life, reducing
contaminants from autos, household toxics and business waste
that flow daily into street gutters and into our waterways is
crucial. Doing it cheaply and simply is an idea whose time has
come. 
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