THE SUPER PROJECT and the Aliso Mainstem
Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study

The Army Corp of Engineers and the County of Orange are designing projects for Aliso Creek that are intended to stabilize the creek bed within the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

Since creation of the Wilderness Park in 1979, vegetation in the creek bed has made an amazing recovery from the heavily grazed landscape left from ranchland days. The creek bed now is heavily vegetated with willows and many other riparian plants and is home for birds and other wildlife.

Yet erosion has occurred due to excessive storm water flows from the impervious surfaces of the suburbanized watershed. The erosion has exposed utility pipes that transport sewage to the treatment plant and treated sewage to the ocean outfall. The creek also suffers from dry-weather nuisance flows of 5 million gallons per day, mostly due to the overuse of water in landscaping upstream.

Many concerns have been raised about the SUPER Project being proposed by the County. (SUPER is an acronym for Stabilization Utility Protection Ecosystem Restoration):

• The 26 cement drop structures intended to stabilize the creek will over-concretize the creek and require removal of most of the existing vegetation. Wildlife will be impacted. 70 Acres of vegetation will be cleared and 1 million cubic yards of earth are planned to be moved.

• Must the wilderness park be used to mitigate the consequences of upstream development? The consequences would most appropriately be handled upstream. The upstream solutions to limit and recycle urban runoff have not been adequately explored.

• The SUPER Project will not improve ocean water quality significantly. The ultraviolet light component of the project is aimed at bacteria and not at the other pollutants such as pesticides, herbicides and automotive chemicals. Nor will it improve water quality in the park, since the proposed treatment plant is located at the mouth of the creek.

• The SUPER Project will slow but not reduce the unnatural volume of water reaching and damaging the ocean and estuary.

• Could efforts be made by the sanitation districts using the pipes to recycle their wastewater and waste products upstream? Rather than spending 50 million dollars to stabilize pipes that dump effluent into the ocean, could some of these resources be used to update the treatment facilities?

In May, Laguna Beach organizations sponsored a field trip to view Aliso Creek and Canyon within Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park where the SUPER project is being considered to be built.

At this time the SUPER project is not funded and the County continues to seek funding. At the July 7, 2009 Laguna Beach City Council meeting, in response to comments from our City and the public, County representative Mary Anne Skorpanich explained that the SUPER project as described above is only one of the alternatives that will be considered at such time as funding is available.

However, the “Aliso Mainstem Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study” is funded and is being worked on by the Corps of Engineers. This project is intended to stabilize the creek but is not involved in improvement of water quality, protection of utilities, or flood control. Controlling the creek using concrete structures similar to those of the SUPER project will be proposed as a part of this study