Editor’s note: Lake Elsinore Mayor Robert Magee issued the following statement in response to the Petition to Preserve Lake Elsinore’s Wetlands, highlighting what the city has done in and around the lake, its shoreline, and wetlands.
By Mayor Robert Magee,
Thank you to all that have signed this petition and for expressing your support for the preservation of our vital wetlands. Although your petition focuses on the Four Corners area, that is just a small portion of the wetlands within the City of Lake Elsinore.
Our lake is over 3,000 acres in area with a shoreline that stretches for 14 miles inside the city and outside in the county unincorporated area. We also have miles of shoreline adjacent to the San Jacinto River (in flow) and the Temescal Creek (outflow).
One of the many challenges we face is our vast expanses of vacant private property that invites trespassers down to the water’s edge. We have implemented a very aggressive program where we request private property owners authorize us to remove trespassers from their property.
We use a 602 form that thanks to the efforts of Assemblywoman Johnson is now good for up to three years instead of requiring an annual renewal.
In 2013, the city council enacted an aggressive program to take back our public spaces from homeless campers, trespassers, and illegal dumpers. This program included the efforts of our Code Enforcement team, the Sheriff’s Department, and our Homeless Outreach partners. We offered a hand up, not a handout. We follow up each week–sometimes twice a week–with our Public Works contractors to remove the trespassers and the trash and debris they leave behind.
Each year, we devote more than $2 million to this effort by removing hundreds of tons of trash, waste, inoperative vehicles, and debris from sensitive habitat areas.
Later, the county joined our efforts with their Code team to address intrusions along the Lakeland Village side of the valley. These cooperative efforts have been largely successful in returning our public spaces for public use. Where we continue to struggle is with unsecured private property, like the Four Corners area, where access has not been restricted by the property owner. And while we routinely remove the trespassers and their waste (for which we bill the property owner), the situation continues to repeat itself, a discouraging reoccurrence that your group has personally witnessed.
As part of our efforts to engage the homeless, we secured an Operation Home Key Grant from the state, purchasing and converting an old hotel on Graham Avenue for emergency housing, where people can get clean and sober, receive 24-hour medical attention, counseling, and the ability to plan for the next step in their lives with a clear head.
Two years ago, the city implemented a very ambitious water quality improvement plan for the lake, including routine algicide treatments, Phoslock to remove phosphorus from the water column, and a Nanobubble system to inject 90% pure oxygen into the lake. The results have been a clearer lake, healthier aquatic life, and increased usage by the public. In fact, over the last two years, the lake has never been closed to the public due to contamination.
Recognizing our efforts and great success, Congressman Ken Calvert stepped forward last year and dedicated $8 million toward a new, larger, and more efficient Nanobubble. That machine is currently being fabricated and should come online before the end of the year. And then this year, the Congressman awarded us an $11 million grant to purchase and protect the habitat of nearly 1000 acres in an area known as North Peak.
As a member of the Western Riverside County Resource Conservation Agency and the San Jacinto Lake Elsinore Watershed Authority, I can speak first-hand about the preservation efforts these multi-jurisdictional organizations have made toward improving and protecting our precious resources. And I promise you, our efforts will continue.
More than a decade ago, I met with seven members of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), including four game wardens and three biologists. The meeting was organized and hosted by then-Senator Jeff Stone (CDFW would not respond to my meeting requests).
During the meeting we showed them a drone video of the Four Corners area and how illegal camping, dumping and occupation led to pollutants leaching into our lake. The time-lapse video showed the dramatic rise and fall of the lake’s elevation before and after periods of rain. The graphic result was shocking and undeniable. The pollution and the sources were clear for all to see. The response from the chief game warden in charge: “We do not engage the Homeless.”
While the lake and its tributaries are designated as Waters of the United States, regulatory protection measures fall to local government, as well as the CDFW. The city owns the lake, and it is something to be proud of and worthy of preservation; this city council has been dedicated to improving and protecting its water quality and habitat for the past several years.
We have county partners and federal partners, but we don’t have a state partner. They chose to test our water routinely for contamination or threaten us with strict enforcement of government regulations without engaging in productive, solution-oriented discussions.
In his latest budget proposal, Governor Newsom recommended the elimination of 87 positions within CDFW. Not what you’d expect from someone who wraps himself around a green flag as a champion for the environment!
CDFW is understaffed and overwhelmed, but that does not relieve them of their responsibility to help protect this resource. While the game wardens will occasionally patrol our shorelines and issue $500 tickets to 16-year-olds without a fishing license or who have their dog off the leash, they will turn a blind eye to the homeless trespasser who will bury their dead pet in the floodplain, dump their trash in the waterway, and defecate in our precious lake. This needs to change.
Your petition belongs on the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom! My council colleagues and I are not dismissing our responsibility; on the contrary, we will continue to devote all the resources we can to preserve and protect our wetlands, including the Four Corners area. If you see something, say something. Report any and all illegal activity to us right away and we will respond.
But we need some help beyond state-imposed rules and regulations, we need boots on the ground helping us enforce those regulations, like the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the Clean Water Act, all of which fall under the purview of CDFW for enforcement.
My council colleagues and I stand ready to embrace a new partnership with the state. Perhaps your petition can be the tool to make that happen.
