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Poly and Stenner canyons, home to bicycle trails, hiking trails and outdoor classrooms, will soon be home to a new feature: the state water pipeline.
After years of discussion and debate, the pipeline heralded as both the cheapest and most reliable source of water, is nearing the completion of its Central Coast leg, carrying water from northern California all the way to Santa Maria.
The project is scheduled to begin construction in Stenner Canyon in March or April of 1996, and is expected to be completed by that November, said Pam Jenkins, a land agent for the Department of Water Resources (DWR).
The pipeline, which will measure between 36 and 42 inches, will cut through Stenner Canyon, then Poly Canyon. Along the way it will cross more than six streams, affecting the plant and animal life that depend on them, and will cut through pasture land.
"I am very concerned that (the state water project) would be disastrous upon both the ecological and recreational uses of Poly and Stenner Canyons," said Steven Marx, an English professor at Cal Poly.
Marx, along with Biology professor Phil AshIey, is not questioning the fact that the pipeline is going to be built. However, they are both addressing how the pipeline is being built. "Poly and Stenner canyons are living labs," Ashley said, "and classes from the science and agricultural departments use the canyons nearly every day."
The DWR is in charge of the project. Their plans call. for a 30- to 40-foot-wide trench and an additional easement--a section of land that the state will own and control- for roads and storage near the construction site.
Ashley knows that he cannot stop the pipeline from being built, but he questions the construction techniques involved.
"I'm not completely opposed to the project," Ashley said. '"If I had the only vote on the whole thing, it would not be going through. But the people voted for it. Now I'm just trying to minimize the damage."
Changes that Ashley has proposed to the DWR's plans mostly include shifting the pipeline 20 to 30 feet to avoid sensitive ecological areas.
"It's hard to get the campus community to get behind this," Ashley said. "They all have their own things to do.
"A lot of students don't even know the project is going on. They're going to find out when the project goes through," he said.
The project is going straight through several stands of 200 to 300-year-old oak groves, Ashley said. The DWR plans to mitigate the loss by planting oak seedlings, Jenkins said.
"In addition, there's a 60-foot wide permanent easement that they will not allow any growth on," Ashley said.
While the DWR has been in contact with Ashley, he contends that they have been shifting engineers and have been unresponsive to his comments. "It's like they're stuck in the 50s," Ashley said.
Ashley is not alone in his complaints. "It's the most frustrating agency I've ever dealt with," said Herald Miosi; owner of a ranch adjacent to Poly Canyon. "I've dealt with (multiple agencies) and the DWR is the worst."
Miosi has other problems with the DWR's plans. "I happened to go by Santa Margarita"by Highway 58 where the pipeline is going through," he said. "It's quite an undertaking, a massive amount of dirt moved." "It's going to be a huge open trench," Miosi said. "It practically severs the ranch. How are the cattle going to get to water?"
However, Cal Poly's ranch has been prepared for the project for some time. "We've been working on this for three years," said Phil Doub, Cal Poly's director of farm systems. "The pipeline project is compensating us. We're concerned with continuing access, slopes and mitigating erosion. "I wish the ecological concerns had gotten involved sooner," Doub said.
According to those hired to build the pipeline, they are not the ones who should be adressing concerns about the environment. "I don't respond to people who raise ecological concerns," Larry Brandt, the local representative for Homer J. Olfex, the contractor hired by the DWR. "We're just the contractor."
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