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by Travis Mooney
All the screaming, crying and talking in the world wasn't working. There was no saving the relationship between the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Central Coast's environmental community.
That is, until last Monday when campus representatives met with DWR personnel and directly addressed possible changes to the route of the state water pipeline Ñ changes that would save the stands of ancient oaks and sensitive riparian areas that environmentalists were most concerned about.
Frank Lebens, vice president for Administration and Finance, Bob Kitamura director of Facilities Planning, V.L. Holland, biology department head, Norm Pillsbury, forestry and natural resources management department head and Warren Baker, Cal Poly president, met with representatives from the DWR Monday. According to Lebens, the meeting centered around changing the route of the pipeline and looking at less damaging ways to build it.
"First there was some confusion about the current alignment," Lebens said. "What we saw on the maps they had provided us didn't match the stakes everyone saw." There was a question about where the pipeline was really going to go, according to Lebens.
The rest of the meeting centered around looking at the currently proposed route and the proposal made by English Professor Steven Marx, the de facto head of the movement against the state water pipeline project. However, just because the DWR is willing to listen to alternatives doesn't mean they're ready to change their route.
"They're worried about the cost and time involved in changing the route," Lebens said. "They'd also have to do new geological surveys and get a revised right-of-way from the Southern Pacific Railroad. "It's not that the project would take a lot longer, it's the paperwork that would (eat up the time)."
The DWR, an organization which environmentalists say is stuck in the 1950s, just wasn't hearing the concerns, according Marx. No matter how many times he, Biology Technician Phil Ashley or any other member of the environmental community tried to work with the DWR they got nowhere, Ashley said. Even worse, it seemed to them like Cal Poly's administration was playing along with the anti-environment mentality of the DWR.
However, Monday's meeting of campus administrators and DWR representatives and a letter sent out by Baker to the DWR has bridged the chasm between the administration and environmentalists.
While Marx bills it as an alliance against the DWR, Lebens calls it an alliance against the destruction of the environment. "We're not against the DWR, we're against the loss of oak trees and other environmental features," Lebens said. Destroying the environment also destroys the natural lab that Poly and Stenner Canyons provide, according to Lebens. "We are certainly united in strong feelings about the project," Lebens said.
President Baker met directly with DWR Director Mike Kennedy Wednesday to make another appeal for a change in the proposed route of the pipeline. "The president has a profound personal and professional interest in seeing the ecology of Poly Canyon preserved," said Bill Boldt, vice president for University Advancement. Boldt explained that Cal Poly has the only hardwood management program in the Western United States focusing on oaks. "The oaks are a very important laboratory," he said. "We need to practice what we teach."
The DWR has agreed to look at the options provided by Cal Poly in the route of the state water pipeline through university land. However, no formal decision has been made by the DWR to change its current route. According to Lebens, an answer from the DWR should arrive next week.
"We're hoping for some form of compromise," Boldt said.
The Daily was unable to reach a representative from the DWP for comment.
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