August 11, 2006

For Immediate Release
Contact: Brian Trautwein
Environmental Defense Center
805/963-1622

Long-awaited Mission Creek Flood Control Project Receives Coastal Commission Approval. EDC, City and Corps reach Agreement on Habitat Protection Measures

On Friday August 11, 2006, the California Coastal Commission unanimously approved the City of Santa Barbara's long-proposed Lower Mission Creek Flood Control Project. During the last week, negotiations between the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), the City of Santa Barbara and the U.S. Corps of Engineers resulted in additional protections for Mission Creek's habitat.

First proposed as a concrete channelization project in 1962, the Mission Creek Flood Control Project was initially rejected by the community. However, in the late 1980's the City of Santa Barbara conceptually endorsed the project, and a formal process of reviewing the project began.

In 1994, after the discovery of endangered steelhead and threatened tidewater goby in Mission Creek, EDC, the City, the County Flood Control District, property owners and the Corps of Engineers reached a historic agreement not to channelize Mission Creek with concrete, and to preserve it as part of the area's natural beauty.

The creek will still be widened for flood protection, removing over 100 residences out of the floodplain. However, it will not be paved. Instead, it will be restored with native plants like sycamores and oaks. This approach will preserve and improve the creek as a natural resource while protecting people living along it.

The Coastal Commission's approval Friday represents one of the last of numerous administrative hurdles the Flood Control Project has to clear. Over $15 million in funding is still required to build the project which the City may implement in phases.

The Coastal Commission first considered the project in 2001. Since that time, new plans for management and restoration of the creek have been prepared in direct response to EDC's concerns about the project's impact on the creek habitat. One of these plans, the Tidewater Goby Management Plan, includes EDC's suggestion for a new prohibition on artificial breaching of the Mission Creek Lagoon. This prohibition will protect the tidewater goby and steelhead living there.

"The Mission Creek Lagoon is one of the area's finest remaining examples of a natural coastal estuary. The new requirements to manage the Lagoon, including the prohibition against draining the Lagoon proposed by EDC, will ensure that this unique habitat will continue supporting a wide diversity of shorebirds, wildlife and fish including steelhead," according to Brian Trautwein, Environmental Analyst for the EDC.

The plans were crafted through a multi-year consensus-based process involving the City, the Corps, EDC and biologists and creek experts identified by EDC.

"EDC and the City are confident the consensus-based plans will protect Mission Creek as a valuable natural resource, and will stand the test of time," added Mr. Trautwein, who has been working to protect and restore Mission Creek for 18 years. "In 100 years people should be able to come down to the waterfront and still be able to enjoy a beautiful Lagoon with fish and wildlife."

Other elements of these plans recommended by EDC include restoring native vegetation to 1.2-miles the creek banks and buffers. The plans also include a new protective buffer area around the Lagoon. EDC believes these plans will help guide the future management of this ecologically sensitive area on Santa Barbara's waterfront, and ensure that the flood control project minimizes damage to the creek habitat.

EDC and the City are currently partnering on another project to remove an existing mile-long concrete channel from Mission Creek. This project will foster steelhead migration from the ocean to spawning grounds in Mission Canyon.

EDC is a non-profit environmental law firm serving the Tri-Counties communities.