Pictured: the Rubio Canyon wall, shortly after the county issued an order to stop construction in September.
As the rain continues to fall and the streams continue to fill, officials of the Rubio Canyon Land & Water Association are looking nervously at the illegal wall in Rubio Creek.
The wall spans halfway across Rubio Creek, a blue line waterway (which means no construction on it is permitted). It was constructed this summer by the property owners, Moninder and Ruchi Birdi, supposedly to protect their buildings from water damage and discourage a bear that was entering their property. However, the wall was constructed without permits from any of the numerous agencies that have an interest in the creek, and the county ordered construction halted in September.
But it's easier to build an illegal wall than to tear it down. Since the stop order, the wall has been mired in the jurisdictions of different government agencies that have a stake in it. Mitigating the effects of the wall -- meaning tearing it down, modifying it, or leaving it up but minimizing its effects -- requires plans to be drawn up, mitigation measures proposed and approved, and all agencies agreeing. The wall has been given several deadlines to come down, but it remains up as mitigation measures are proposed and historic levels of rainfall are well underway.
And this is what makes Rubio Canyon Land & Water nervous. The water company has easements on either side of the creek, and pipes that supply its customers on the east side of the creek. The water company fears that the creek, diverted to the east by the wall, will wash out the side of the creek and damage the pipes, possibly cutting off water to all its customers.
So far, though, things seem to be OK. "At this moment, it doesn't look like there's a danger," said Lillian Woods, director of operations for the water company. "We're checking it out twice a day, and there's pretty good flow." But the water company is still upset. "They really altered the stream, too -- I was up there a couple of days ago ... it's been diverted, it's going to the east now instead of straight down, it's being diverted by the wall."
Woods also says that the willows and other growth that was cut down to make room for the wall are collecting together by the water flow forming a "stick dam" that's impeding flow.
Woods says that the water company is now in the process of planning how to put in a temporary pipeline if their main line is washed out. "We know about how much pipeline we'd need, but it depends on if we'd have access to it, if [the stream] is too active.
"That's why we wanted to do something before the rains. I don't know what else to do rather than what we're doing."
Moninder Birdi, the property owner who constructed the wall, said in a voicemail that "we are working on this as fast as we can ... we've got a permit from (LA County) Building and Safety, and we have an application in to Fish and Game ... as soon as we get the go-ahead, we'll do the work, that is, tear down the wall."
