The lawsuit accuses state transit agency Caltrans of killing endangered Southern California steelhead trout as part of a repair project on Highway 101.
By Edvard Pettersson, Courthouse News Service
The California Department of Transportation’s emergency repair work on the 101 Freeway in Central California has barred endangered steelhead trout from accessing a key habitat in the Gaviota Creek, which runs alongside the highway, according to an environmentalist group.
Caltrans has completely dewatered or diverted a section of the creek and killed at least three steelhead while trying to relocate the fish, the Coastal Ranches Conservancy, a group that focuses its efforts on the so-called Gaviota Coast west of Santa Barbara, said in a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court.
“Defendants’ implementation of the project, in particular the dewatering and diversion of Gaviota Creek, has resulted in direct killing, trapping, harming, and harassment of steelhead,” the conservancy said.
Representatives of Caltrans didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours.
While Caltrans is the lead agency on a large planned project to restore fish access on the Gaviota Creek by removing barriers and shoring up foundations of the highway, after heavy rains last winter damaged the 101’s revetments and necessitated emergency repairs.
As part of the repairs, Caltrans and its contractor built a bypass system for the dewatered section of creek, which includes a 1,000-feet long plastic pipe, according to the complaint.
“The pipe is a barrier to steelhead moving up or downstream, which is essential for steelhead to survive the hot dry summer months when they must find pools of cool water,” the lawsuit said. “Dewatering and diverting Gaviota Creek is destroying essential refugia pools within the project’s footprint.”
The Southern California steelhead, a species that spawns and spends its first year or two in fresh water before migrating to the ocean, has been a federal endangered species since 1997.
The Gaviota Creek is the largest watershed in coastal southern Santa Barbara County, with about 32 miles of high-quality stream habitat. It is designated critical habitat for the fish, according to the complaint.
Under the permit for its repair work on the freeway, Caltrans wasn’t authorized to take any threatened or endangered species, the lawsuit claims. Nor did Caltrans or its contractor obtain a so-called “incidental take” permit for the project, they said.
Moreover, according to the lawsuit, large boulders have been placed in the creek as part of the project, imposing further barriers to the fish’s journeys upstream. The boulders are expected to remain in place after the work is finished.
The lawsuit accused Caltrans and its contractor of violating the U.S. Endangered Species Act by taking steelhead without authorization. The complaint asks for an injunction prohibiting the agency from violating the act further and to mitigate for the taking of the steelhead.
The Coastal Ranches Conservancy is represented in the case by Erica Maharg of Aqua Terra Aeris Law Group in Oakland, California, and by Daniel Cooper of Sycamore Law in San Francisco.
