Stop the Toll Road: Damage to Trestles

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Surfers and swimmers at the world famous Trestles surf breaks of San Onofre (see map) fear the polluted runoff & sandbar disruptions that will inevitably be caused by having a toll road alongside the San Mateo Creek.		The high-quality surfing waves at the Trestles beaches (Lower Trestles and Upper Trestles; see map) are dependent on the pristine, free-flowing San Mateo Creek. Unlike every other rivermouth surfing spot in Southern California, the coastal waters at the mouth of the San Mateo Creek are clean and receive an uninterrupted, natural flow of sediment from the creek. The sediment flow in the San Mateo Creek has not been altered - the creek has no dams, levees, or flood control channels, a rarity in Southern California. It is the sediment from the San Mateo Creek that forms the sensitive offshore sandbars that are responsible for the world-class wave shape at the Trestles surf breaks. The toll road, to be situated right next to the creek, would drastically change the creek's sediment flow due to the required flood control measures that would be implemented to protect the toll road from the naturally and habitually flooding creek. Wave quality at Trestles would suffer as a result. Not only the Trestles sandbars, but the water quality itself would suffer from the toll road. Unavoidable polluted runoff from the vehicles using the toll road would flow downhill into the creek and out to the Trestles surf breaks. Once in the surf zone, the polluted runoff from the creek would be pinned within the near shore waters by the wave action. Heavy metals, petroleum products, high bacteria counts, and increased debris and litter will all flow to the Trestles surf breaks as a by-product of the toll road. The TCA claims that the toll road's impact on Trestles and the other San Onofre beaches will be negligible. They're wrong. Damage to Trestles and the surrounding San Onofre beaches will be considerable and it will be of a nature that cannot be mitigated to any significant degree. Surfers, bodyboarders, swimmers and other ocean enthusiasts enjoy the waters and waves of Trestles year round. There is no other place like it in California nor the world. Among Southern Californian surfers, the Trestles breaks are known as "The Yosemite of Surfing." It is a very special place; let's preserve it for our children and for ourselves.