San Pedro Creek Waters/Wetlands Ecosystem Restoration & Flood Control Project, City of Pacifica, CA

The San Pedro Creek Waters/Wetlands Ecosystem & Flood Control Project involved restoration design, granting, environmental permitting, and construction oversight activities related to the restoration of approximately ten acres of tidally-influenced riverine waters/wetlands within the lower San Pedro Creek ecosystem.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the City of Pacifica, California, collaborated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a strategy to control flooding by San Pedro Creek in the Linda Mar district. In 1991, an agreement on the project was reached, and L.C. Lee & Associates, Inc. (LCLA) was retained to design and permit the restoration of approximately ten acres of tidally-influenced riverine waters/wetlands within the San Pedro Creek ecosystem. The project was designed using the hydrogeomorphic (HGM) model of riverine waters/wetlands ecosystem functions, developed by LCLA for riverine ecosystems along the central coast of California, to provide attenuation of 100-year flood flows within the restored flood plain, and to restore hydrologic, biogeochemical, plant community, and habitat support ecosystem functioning within the lower reach of San Pedro Creek. Special emphasis was placed on the restoration of habitat for the federally protected Central California Coast Steelhead (Oncoryhnchus mykiss) and California red legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii).

The San Pedro Creek restoration design included: 1) relocation of a straightened and leveed stream channel to a newly-constructed, meandering channel; 2) restoration of a complex floodplain microtopography; 3) reintroduction of refractory wood (log jams) to both the flood plain and stream channel; and, 4) restoration of native waters/wetlands plant communities. LCLA presented the completed design for public review, obtained federal and state permits, and assisted federal and state regulatory agencies to ensure the persistence of the California red legged frog and Central California Coast Steelhead within the lower reach of San Pedro Creek. LCLA also produced construction drawings and specifications and assisted with the purchase and salvage of plant materials.

L.C. Lee & Associates, Inc. successfully obtained more than $3,000,000 in grant monies on behalf of Pacifica to fund the city’s share of the restoration project and to purchase several private property parcels at the mouth of San Pedro Creek, thereby adding to the width of the active floodplain. Construction Phase 1 was completed in the summer of 2001 and Phase 2 in the fall of 2003.