Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) has introduced AB353 that promises to expedite the cleaning of Bouquet Creek near Santa Clarita. If the legislation is signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, county workers would receive special permission to begin restoring the creek and reintroduce its inhabitants such as the endangered threespine stickleback fish.
Federal red tape has reportedly delayed efforts to restore Bouquet Creek, which since 2005 has been clogged with debris after extensive flooding. Lackey’s office said that state permission for handling the endangered fish was granted before; in 2012 Caltrans was given permission under AB1973 to get a “take permit” to rebuild the Ferguson Slide Bridge near Yosemite. A “take permit” is a document that explains what special handling is allowed for an environmentally protected animal, which in the Yosemite case involved the limestone salamander. Officials had to remove the slippery amphibian after the 1997 El Nino caused heavy flooding.
“The governor has until Oct. 11 to sign the bill,” said David Perry, deputy to Los Angeles County Mayor Michael Antonovich. “It will clear the way for the county to move forward with the (California Environmental Quality Act) process.” The bill has already cleared the state senate.
County officials are said to be eager to clean up Bouquet Creek and restore water released from the Bouquet Reservoir to normal allocations for residents downstream. If Brown signs the bill, county bulldozers can legally enter U.S. Forest Service land to clean the creek, which is believed to be a natural habitat of the threespine stickleback fish and other endangered wildlife. The stickleback is a minnow-sized fish that has reportedly lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for 10,000 years—about the time when glaciers began to melt near the end of the last ice age.
“This is a great victory for the residents of Bouquet Canyon and the wildlife that populate the area,” Antonovich said. “With this passage, we are closer to a resolution that allows the county and our partners to complete the habitat restoration project and solve the ongoing water problems the area has faced for over 10 years.”
Last year, Antonovich proclaimed a state of emergency thereby allowing agencies to bypass costly permits needed to restore the creek bed.
