Pala tribe, EPA reach agreement

The Pala Band of Mission Indians and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached an agreement regarding the removal of fill material the tribe had placed in the San Luis Rey River and Trujillo Creek.

The tribe agreed to removal of the material without contesting the EPA order, although it did not agree to the EPA claim that the fill material had been illegally placed and the settlement does not include an admission of wrongdoing.

“The EPA and the tribe have a different point of view,” said Jeff Keohane, the attorney for the Pala tribe. “The tribe decided not to argue about whether it really was entitled to put the material in.”

The tribe had obtained an emergency US Army Corps of Engineers permit following the January 11 flood. “During the flood the banks of the river had started to cave in,” Keohane said. “The question is what is necessary to prevent property damage.”

Only natural material was used. “They replaced the dirt that fell into the river,” Keohane said.

The tribe then placed rock on the bank to stop further cave-ins. The quantity of the fill was deemed to have been in technical violation of the EPA permit.

“We did a site visit and realized that this request, the scope of the request, had been exceeded,” said Marcella von Vacano, the assistant regional counsel for Region 9 of the EPA.

“The amount that was requested by the tribe was not as much as we needed,” Keohane said. “We had a discussion about the extent of what was necessary.”

The EPA allowed the tribe to continue placing riprap, or natural material, along the banks of the river. “The tribe agreed to make it less wide and the EPA agreed to let the tribe make it longer,” Keohane said.

The agreement did not include a fine or administrative assessment. “The order is to have a consultant and to have a contractor to remove the material, and it was just restoration,” von Vacano said. “They agree to take certain steps to address that.”

The removal was completed by March 1. The agreement also covered previous issues involving Trujillo Creek, which was also flooded on January 11. “It was decided it would be more efficient to throw everything into one document,” Keohane said.

The Trujillo Creek settlement will not involve fines or administrative assessments but will involve mitigation, possibly the removal of non-native species. “They are spending some money to comply with that,” von Vacano said.

“We’re still talking about what to do about mitigation,” Keohane said.

The EPA noted its commitment to the protection of the San Luis Rey River. “The San Luis Rey River, we’ve been focusing on that one, because compared to other watersheds it’s relatively intact,” von Vacano said.