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Half Moon Bay Review By Nicole Achs Freeling Last of a three-part series on health of creeks on the Coastside looks at Butano Creek. Pescadero resident Bill Cook says his living room gets drenched
every winter by the overflowing waters of Butano Creek. The creek regularly bursts its banks, flowing over Pescadero Creek Road and blocking the main artery into town. But this winter Cook is hopeful his carpet -
and the road - will stay drier. Using $2,000 collected from townspeople, he is piling sandbags at the side of the creek where it crosses Pescadero Road. Cook is hopeful his jerry-rigged solution will help
a situation that volumes of research and years of squabbling have failed to improve. "It forces the water back into the creek where it belongs," said the resident flooding activist. Best of all, he
adds, "You don't need any permits." The sandbags, he admits, are a Band-aid. But longer-term efforts to address the problem have ended up as deeply bogged in controversy as the Butano is mired in silt.
Once a fast-running stream About 150 years ago, the creek was 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep where it crossed Pescadero
Road. Now, the road above it is 20 feet wide and the river's two feet deep in the same location. The channel has about one-fiftieth of its former capacity, according to data compiled by Cook. A number of factors
contributed to the change, including eroding logging roads - which continue to dump sediment into the system - poor logging practices, agricultural levees, and the introduction of beavers to the area, whose dams
block the channel. Today, addressing the flooding is a tricky issue. Because the creek runs though a mix of public and private land and because it is home to endangered fish and frogs, action there requires
permits from dozens of agencies. But controversy and suspicion have further muddied the waters, hampering plans to address the problem. A major study planned to examine the watershed is in jeopardy, much of
its funding revoked in the face of controversy. And a county proposal to raise the road has been shelved due to local opposition. Quagmire of competing interests Last year, the county Resource Conservation District began raising $400,000 for a
study it hoped would be the first step toward addressing the area's flooding problems. The study was aimed not just at Butano Creek but also Pescadero Creek, which, while it floods less frequently, poses a
greater danger to the town. The study was endorsed by all the agencies with jurisdiction over Butano Creek as a way to devise a long-term solution. But it was vehemently opposed by many locals. They said they wanted
action, not further study. Landowners and farmers feared the study would result in further scrutiny of their activities and further regulation, according to an RCD report. Without solid support, funding dwindled
"When the process fell apart, it put everything back to square one," Ednoff said. Locals have different idea But wildlife agencies and
conservation groups say the plan is based on dubious science and could harm endangered frogs and fish. "You want to be sure what you do doesn't have some unintended negative effect," said Lennie
Roberts of the Committee for Green Foothills. "We need a well-thought-out, science-based plan." A scaled-down watershed assessment study is now being undertaken by a nonprofit foundation associated
with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. In the meantime, Cook, at least, is banking on the sandbags. Trying to get more done, he said, can be exasperating. "It feels a bit like
beating your head against the wall," he said, "so now I'm putting my energies toward something productive." |
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