| Throughout the Emergency Storage Project, the San Diego
County Water Authority has worked to minimize impacts to the environment
from construction activities. The Water Authority conducted detailed studies
to identify sensitive plants, wildlife and habitat that could be affected.
To minimize impacts at construction sites,
environmentally sensitive areas are marked with fencing and flagging to
preserve identified resources. Construction is scheduled to avoid breeding
seasons of sensitive bird species and a biological monitor visits construction
sites at least weekly to ensure sensitive natural resources are protected.
The Water Authority also implemented an environmental mitigation-monitoring
program to ensure environmental protection during construction. The Water
Authority’s mitigation monitoring program includes:
- avoiding and minimizing impacts to sensitive biological resources,
- preserving offsite mitigation lands, and
- compensating for impacts by restoring affected habitat.
Because there will be some temporary and permanent environmental impacts
associated with the Emergency Storage Project, the Water Authority is
obligated to acquire and preserve habitat as compensation for these disruptions.
The Water Authority tries to match habitats to preserve with those that
have been lost or impacted during construction projects. The Emergency
Storage Project wetland mitigation program includes two projects –
a wetland creation site in Encinitas off Manchester Avenue and a wetland
enhancement site at Escondido Creek near the Olivenhain Dam and the Elfin
Forest Recreational Reserve, west of the city of Escondido.
Manchester Wetland Creation
The first wetland mitigation project the Water Authority completed was
the creation of nearly eight acres of wetlands in Encinitas. This project
began in October 2004 and was completed in March 2005. The newly created
wetlands have been added to the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve.
The Water Authority restored this former wetland that had
been damaged from many years of farming and grazing. The project included:
- Removing nonnative plant species that posed a threat to the quality
of the wetland habitat (including mustard, pampas grass and non-native
acacia).
- Relocating the smaller Torrey pine trees, which were not indigenous
to the area, and donating them to the San Diego County Parks and Recreation.
- Creating channels, ponds and hummocks, mimicking a wetland habitat.
- Seeding the site with native plants (including isocoma scrub, southern
willow scrub and marsh plant species).
- Installing a temporary irrigation system to help get the new plants
off to a healthy start.
The Water Authority will monitor the site for five years, an area that
is now a valuable habitat for sensitive wildlife species.
 Escondido
Creek Wetland Enhancement
In the fall of 2004, the Water Authority began riparian enhancement work
along Escondido Creek. For the first phase of the project, the California
Conservation Corps removed invasive nonnative species of plants such as
arundo and eucalyptus trees. The Water Authority will plant native species,
such as the arroyo willow or western sycamore, as part of phase two. Once
the nonnative plants are removed, native plants will naturally revegetate
the area. The Escondido Creek Conservancy and the Olivenhain Municipal
Water District are involved in the coordination of the project.
The riparian enhancement area includes 95 acres of land, bordering both
sides of Escondido Creek. The first phase ended in February 2005 and a
six-month hiatus was required for the gnat catcher breeding season. Phase
2, which will include the revegetation and planting work, is scheduled
to begin in September 2005 and end in February 2006. The Water Authority
will monitor and maintain the revegetated areas until 2011.
"Working in
Nature" Fact Sheet 
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