Since the beginning of time, the wind has blown briskly through Stenner and Poly Canyons. Purple, yellow and white spotted flowers cover the canyon hillsides.

Approximately 300-year-old oak trees, as well as sycamore, eucalyptus and laurel trees, provide shade for much of the creek area, as well as homes to many animals. Several creeks flow from Cuesta Mountain through San Luis Obispo County, and butterflies f lutter across the area, as birds sing in the background.

Students and those who appreciate the beautiful surroundings the Central Coast provides can often be found hiking, biking or studying in this area.

In a few weeks, this area will be completely changed.

Bulldozers will tear apart the creek beds, rip through the grasslands and demolish the flowers. The quiet sound of birds will be replaced by manmade engine noises.

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is building a 100-mile pipeline which will pass through Poly and Stenner Canyons. The $500-million pipeline project is an offshoot of an aqueduct in Kern County, which runs from Kettleman City near Kern County to Vandenburg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

Since the 1960s, state engineers have planned the California aqueduct's extension into the Central Coast. In 1992, state water was voted on in the Central Coast. In this process, the pipeline was mapped to pass through Cal Poly land.

DWR spokesman Jeff Cohen said the droughts in the 1980s are one reason why certain communities voted for state water. The communities within San Luis Obispo County that will benefit from the drinkable water include Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Avila Beach, O ceano, the California Men's Colony and Cuesta College ‹not Cal Poly or San Luis Obispo. Although San Luis Obispo‹ including Cal Poly‹did not vote for state water, the pipeline will still cut through the land.

In the way of this pipeline are many precious oak trees and sensitive riparian habitats. This area is also used by the biological sciences and natural resource management departments as a natural laboratory. The natural resource management department off ers the only hardwood management course in the Western United States.

The preservation of this land has created controversy between Cal Poly officials, professors, concerned students and DWR. The topic has made headlines since 1994 in Mustang Daily and other local media.

It was at this time that Cal Poly officials and land owners adjacent to Cal Poly voiced "strong criticism over the state's handling of property rights," according to a Mustang Daily article. Land owner Harold Miossi, 74, has lived on the same 1,700 acres of family land his entire life. He told the Mustang Daily: "The way (the project) has been dealt with is appalling. It's the worst I've ever seen." The pipeline is to travel through three miles of Miossi's land.

Miossi said DWR has not stayed true to some of their agreements with him. "You think you have an agreement and then you don't," he sald.

A recent example of how Miossi said he has been slighted occurred when DWR recently needed to go through one of his pastures. To avoid an old Unocal pipeline, installed in the early 1900s, DWR dug 25-feet deeper than originally planned to put in their pi pe. What they didn't plan on was a natural pool of spring water, nor a latent leak from Unocal's pipeline. The two liquids mixed together, and DWR suddenly had a problem on its hands. Miossi said he just happened to be walking near the site about two weeks ago when he saw DWR officials. Apparently, DWR was planning on putting this polluted water onto Miossi's pasture with claims that it would "bioremediate" ‹ the oil and water would b reakdown. And he said they were going to do this without contacting Miossi first.

"This would have ended up in San Luis Obispo Creek," he said. "Our ranch drains into the creek ... We are not talking about a bucket of water ... Two pits, full of five to six feet of water." Miossi said that of all the companies he has dealt with in the many years he has lived on the ranch, DWR has been the most frustrating because it keeps changing their plans. "This land has been untraversed for three quarters of a century and then DWR comes in and wants to change it," Miossi said.

What Miossi has experienced with DWR is consistent with what Cal Poly has had to deal with, and may still have to deal with. More concern over the pipeline appeared in Mustang Daily in 1995. This article brought attention to the biology department's uproar over DWR's Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Despite volumes of paperwork created by the project, many questions related to where the final route would go and how it would be constructed were left unanswered.

Even within the university, a communicate gap was apparent. A biological sciences department memorandum stated: "All university departments and colleges that would be impacted by this project have not had an opportunity to participate in the negotiations . . ." The memorandum also listed several concerns about the project, including: its destruction of the habitat, inadequate compensation plans for the destroyed habitat and the potentially lethal releases of chlorine.

In January 1995, biology department technician Phil Ashley, who has been actively involved with the issue since November 1994, expressed his distress over the pipeline in a Mustang Daily article. "It'll be like Sherman's Army coming through with tanks," Ashley said in the article. Ashley is upset with the width of the construction zone. He said it will be at least 150-feet wide in most places. This large gap will be used to put in a fourfoot-wide pipeline. He is concerned that the wide gap will promote soil erosion and cause irrev ersible damage to sensitive biological systems near Poly Canyon.

Within this area are several oak trees in direct line of DWR's path. These oaks are known for their important role in keeping the hillsides intact, as well as being a major player in the ecological process. We are allowing the trees to be destroyed for the future," said Steven Marx, English professor and environmentalist.

Earlier this year, Cal Poly had not signed a right of entry for the project and many campus representatives, including President Warren Baker, Vice President of Administration and Finance Frank Lebens and V.L. Holland, biology department head, were tryin g to negotiate a different route to avoid the trees.

Then the ball came crashing down.

Marx was hiking through Stenner Creek on March 21, when he saw construction workers bulldozing their way toward the oak trees. Marx took the liberty to tell them that if they chose to go any further, they would have to go through him. They stopped.

Cal Poly prepared to take legal action. DWR had proceeded to begin work when no agreement between the two parties had been reached yet. But Cal Poly received a letter of apology the next day. It stated that no other work would be done until all parties w ere in full agreement to the conditions of the clearing or construction.

At that time, 30 of the 40 oaks in the area were to be destroyed. But President Baker and other officials meet with DWR to try to reroute their path. In the end, the original route remained. But DWR promised to save as many oaks as possible, and every designated tree torn out during construction that has not already been surveyed and approved for removal, will cost them.

At least four oaks in Stenner Creek will be destroyed in the process, and there are concerns that more will be damaged.

Besides the oak trees that Cal Poly fought for, there are other concerns about what will happen when DWR plows through. There is a sensitive watershed and many other types of trees in the area that will be harmed. In Mustang Daily, Marx stated he was not happy with the proposal that Poly had made with DWR. He said he is skeptical of the contractor's ability to use trenching and boring techniques to take the pipeline under the trees, instead of simply going around them. But other agreements were settled between the two parties. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between DWR and Cal Poly stated that state officials will have to pay $10,000 for any tree that is torn out during construction that has not already been appro ved for removal.

The release also stated there will be a Cal Poly representative to monitor construction and have authority to stop work if trees are threatened. Cal Poly is also compensating the contractor, up to $2,500 to save some of the trees. It is costing DWR $500,000 for pipeline construction that will cross university property. Cal Poly was originally paid $147,000 for the pipeline rightof-way. But as part of the agreement, the university will give that money back to DWR. President Baker said this money was given back to DWR as "leverage" in Cal Poly's negotiations with DWR.

Baker also admitted in a Mustang Daily article that the agreement reached was not the best solution because Cal Poly couldn't pool the resources at the time the plan was originally drafted. "Hindsight is good in this case," Baker said in the article "This all came about when funding for the university was down, and we didn't have the foresight or the financial ability to put a team on it on a full-time basis."

According to Ashley, Stenner Creek is only one part of the two mile area that DWR is going through. He is concerned about the lack of attention put on the other streams and trees that will be destroyed by DWR. "There are 12 other streams. The pipeline crosses eight streams and four wetlands," Ashley said. "It's like saying 'well, we'll save your arms, but not your legs."' Ashley said he is also upset by the lack of urgency that this project received by Cal Poly officials . "When you go back, before it became a controversy, why didn't we comment on the project then?" he said.

But President Baker defended the compromise between DWR and Cal Poly, stating that Cal Poly had done its best. In a speech to a public relations class, Baker said that because Cal Poly is state land, "ultimately the state has the power of condemnation."< P> This land has been a concern as far back as 1972. In the Landscape Architecture Development criteria for Poly Canyon, it stated worry over tampering with Poly Canyon. "It is recommended that the natural canyon vegetation be left in its natural state as much as possible ... When man begins to tamper with vegetation ... erosion is the usual consequence. "The shade, thick cover, and great number of leaves and relative abundance of water make this plant community the most popular home or habitat of wild animals in the region."

Poly Canyon contains approximately 10 acres composed of a botanical garden maintained by the ornamental horticulture and botany departments.

DWR has between mid-April and mid-November to finish putting the pipeline in.

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