mwd road into chino hills state park

Metropolitan Water District (MWD) is in the process of building a secondary access road to its Diemer Water Filtration Plant in Yorba Linda, immediately south of, and through, Chino Hills State Park. The Plant is located on the southern ridgeline of Telegraph Canyon.

Quick Facts

• Having lost the opportunity to build a secondary access road in the 1990s when the south side of the Plant was being developed into housing, MWD coaxed Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) into supporting the access road by offering funding for a long delayed Park Visitor Center.
• With the offer of a sizable chunk of funding (~$1.6 million) from MWD, DPR supported the road in environmental review documents, newspaper articles, and litigation. In exchange, an endowment from MWD will provide funds to staff, furnish, and finish the nearby Visitor Center.
• Having successfully fought for 20 years to keep a county road out of Telegraph Canyon, HFE filed a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit in 2008 challenging the adequacy of Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the road.

Status

• HFE sued MWD and State Parks in 2008 over the adequacy of the EIR.
• HFE reached a settlement that included funding to add additional parkland to the State Park.
• Negotiations for additional parkland are underway.

Relationship to the Corridor
This MWD Diemer Plant lies on the south ridge of Telegraph Canyon on the southwestern edge of Chino Hills State Park near the mouth of Telegraph Creek where it joins Carbon Canyon Creek.

View a map of the MWD Road Alignment.

Resource Values at risk

• Has Rare Walnut Woodlands
  The road cuts through a steep, walnut laden woodland that was supposedly protected by a Habitat Conservation Plan established in 1996 by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.
• Includes Two Riparian Areas
  Telegraph and Carbon Creeks converge near the site and will need to be bridged yet again.
• Nesting Threatened and Endangered Species
  Federally threatened Least Bell’s vireo are nesting nearby. California gnatcatcher habitat has recently been restored near the road as mitigation for the nearby Vista del Verde housing project in Yorba Linda.

• Earlier Opportunity Lost
  The Diemer Water Filtration Plant, operated by MWD is currently only accessed from the south side on Valley View. In the 1990s, the area around the Plant was developed by Shell-Aera in Yorba Linda. The City of Yorba Linda was so intent on approving the housing project that it failed to require any mitigation for the MWD truck traffic that would be going through this new and now built residential development. MWD itself failed to secure a secondary access for emergencies when it had the chance during the processing of these developments.
  
  
• Carrot to Fund Visitor Center
  Meanwhile State Parks was planning its Visitor Center off of Carbon Canyon Road in Brea but, with recent budget cuts, lacked funding to fully staff the facility once it was built. Though MWD touts the road will be used for emergencies, the road will actually also be used daily for deliveries and as a short cut for employees going to work.
  
  
• Roads Ruin Parks
  In our view, interrupting the serenity of this canyon and ripping up the walnut woodlands it contains was not worth the money MWD offered. Building a Visitor Center should never come at the expense of the land or the Park experience itself. Selling out the natural resources of the Park ostensibly so people can better understand the resources of the Park is not good public policy. It makes all of the land vulnerable to the latest need expressed by outside agencies that have not planned well. It further encourages bad planning because these agencies know, in a pinch, they can make a deal with State Parks.
  

MWD Road Plans (337 KB - PDF)