Orange County public works personnel are set to begin work next week on a pilot program of clearing vegetation from two channels in San Juan Capistrano without using herbicides or pesticides.
The project drew praise Wednesday from Orange County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Katrina Foley as a collaborative effort among public and private interests.
“I think we did a good job collaborating with all of the stakeholders,” Foley said in an interview with City News Service.
Organizations including Surfrider and Coastkeeper offered input in the plan to avoid using the chemicals in the channel.
“We’ve got to prepare for El Niño, but we don’t want to use pesticides or herbicides,” Foley said. “I do think it is my priority that we avoid using herbicides and pesticides wherever possible, and we should certainly do away with routine spraying and do more targeted applications. It’s better for our health and the habitat and keeps our waterways clean.”
Orange County engineer Edward Frondoso said in a conference call with reporters this week that public works staffers will manually clear some of the thicker vegetation from the San Juan and Trabuco Creek channels in a project the Board of Supervisors approved June 9.
“Truly, the goal is to see if we can manage this channel effectively” without the chemicals, Frondoso said. “We’ll do everything we normally can… and we’re going to keep track of how invasive species grow back.”
The program will measure how effective it is to manually remove the vegetation and to see how much it will cost with labor and materials, Frondoso said.
“All of this will help us advise if it’s something we can continue to do in the future and be expanded to other channels,” Frondoso said.
Hugo Pineda, the deputy director of operations and maintenance for the county’s public works department, added, “We’re focused on the removal of woody vegetation.”
Some of the work will involve some electric and power tools as the brush is ripped out, Pineda said. The “low-lying grass” will be left alone, he said.
“All of this is being done in preparation for the storm season” this winter, Pineda said. “We’re going to be at it for a couple of months.”
It’s not clear if the county will have to hire outside contractors to help out.
The county is also eyeing a capital improvement project that will consider widening channels.
Other jurisdictions have tried similar programs and concluded it was not practical, Frondoso said.
“But we’ll only find out by doing it ourselves,” he said.