Slough Culvert Cleared; Legal Action Doubtful

A culvert at Famosa Slough, plugged Friday to the consternation of area residents and state authorities, was unplugged over the weekend, according to a California Coastal Commission official.

The reopening of the culvert on the 20-acre marsh probably eliminates the chance that legal sanctions will be imposed for the initial plugging, said Paul Webb, a Coastal Commission planner.

However, the commission may inform developer Terry Sheldon, who owns the land and wants to build condominiums on part of it, that the construction work was illegal because it was done without a permit, Webb said Monday.

“It’s kind of confusing in a situation like this where the work was done and then undone,” Webb said.

The marshland at the mouth of the San Diego River long has been the focus of contention between developers who want to build on part of the land and environmentalists and nearby residents, many of whom favor preserving the entire slough.

Jeff Mason, an attorney for Sheldon, declined Monday to say who was responsible for blocking the culvert or who removed the plug.

Apparently, the culvert was plugged because raw sewage from a leaking city sewage main was flowing through the culvert and into the slough, he said. But as soon as he learned that the work was done without a permit, Mason said, he let it be known that such activity was not proper.

“I sent out word in every direction I could send it that that (plug) wasn’t supposed to be there,” he said. “Evidently it reached the right place.”

The continued blockage of the culvert would have had a minimal effect on the slough, the final remnant of the wetlands that once included what now is Mission Bay, according to Webb.

During an uncommonly high tide expected this week, water might have reached the slough more easily through the blocked culvert than through a larger one nearby that remained unplugged, he said. In the longer run, plugging of the culvert might have impeded drainage from the slough, he added.

Officials expressed surprise at the timing of the blockage; a controversial bill that would ease development of part of the marsh is pending in the state Legislature. Numerous area residents contacted the Coastal Commission, the California Fish and Game Department and local legislators when they observed two workmen damming the culvert Friday, officials said.