REMINDER Final Oak Creek Decision Wednesday MARCH 4 at 4:30 Please Attend

The final City Council hearing and vote for Oak Creek will take place at 4:30 this Wednesday, March 4th.   Information can be found here  March 4 Hearing Action Alert 

Last Chance to Speak out against

Oak Creek Housing Project

Urge the City Council to Vote NO on Oak Creek

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

4:30 pm

Escondido City Council Chambers 

ENU Members submitted the following Community Commentary  to the San Diego UT.  It was published Saturday but, since the link is not available, we have provided our submittal below FYI.

Residents call for action to stem tide of water, development woes

By Fred Progner and Ron Forster, Members, Escondido Neighbors United and residents of southwest Escondido.

We live in a beautiful rural, oak-studded neighborhood near Felicita Park in North County.  But, pollution and development threaten our area and we aren’t getting help from local and state government.

We are struggling to stop the flow of legacy pollution from the Chatham Barrel Yard, a State ‘superfund’ site, first discovered over 30 years ago.  Industrial waste from Chatham has contaminated groundwater and plumes now extend over a mile from the original dump site.  Plumes have traveled under many properties and contaminated local irrigation wells.  If it keeps going, it could reach Lake Hodges, an emergency water supply reservoir.

Also, Oak Creek, a gated housing development proposed on farmland adjacent to Felicita Park will soon be voted on by Escondido City Council.  It turns out Oak Creek is not good for oaks or creeks or us.   The proposal will cause the destruction of hundreds of native oak trees and the dense development footprint adds to threats of erosion and runoff downstream where impacts are already severe.  County Parks Department’s concerns about potential impacts to Felicita Park have yet to be addressed.   

Also troubling is that past sampling shows the Chatham plumes are under about a third of the Oak Creek site.  However, conditions cannot be fully known because the property owner refused access to technical consultants for scheduled testing of wells on-site.  One of the wells has measured multiple contaminants in the past so needs to be tested.  Soil vapors and groundwater pollution were measured within the property and some of the new homes are proposed over plume areas.

Although the State Department of Toxic Substances Control said the pollution is adequately characterized and will degrade given enough time, this contradicts facts on the ground.  The most recent monitoring shows pollution entering Felicita Creek at the highest levels to date, contamination has spread to new wells, and wells on the Oak Creek site were prevented from being tested.  Having lived with this for 20 years already, we question whether the agency charged with protecting human health from toxic effects is doing enough.

Oak Creek is also heavily reliant on constructed storm water features to address increases in runoff.  The City assures us we can trust that compliance with the storm water permit will ensure no downstream erosion.  However, last week the Regional Water Board filed an official Notice of Violation against the city of Escondido for many failures to enforce the storm water rules.  We no longer trust that we can rely on City oversight.

Our community group, Escondido Neighbors United, is calling for action.   

We call on the City of Escondido to deny Oak Creek, require a less dense alternative, get serious about enforcing storm water rules, and require remediation of pollution before annexation.

We call on Department of Toxic Substances Control to require testing of all wells, treatment systems for contaminated irrigation wells, and precautionary measures to reduce risks. 

Until then, we will continue to stand up and defend our creek, our beautiful park, and our community.