Paso Robles gets OK to clear brush in riverbed after ugly public smackdown of water board 

It appears the city of Paso Robles will soon will be allowed to do some emergency brush clearing in the Salinas River riverbed; the head of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board said as much on Monday.

That’s the right decision. The riverbed is an area of high fire danger. One major blaze on June 22 destroyed two homes, threatened 60 others, and forced a major evacuation.

Yet the water board is absolutely justified in calling for the city to submit a long-term plan for brush clearance, rather than going into emergency mode when fire season rolls around, as Paso Robles did last year and is repeating again this year.

That’s poor management. Clearing brush now, with fire season already underway, is extremely risky. That was made abundantly clear when fire officials announced that the June 22 blaze was likely started by weed abatement work on a path near the riverbed.

The Salinas Riverbed should have been cleared before the start of fire season. Now, July is earliest it can get under way.

For that, the city must be held at least partly responsible, rather than being allowed to paint the water board as the villain in all this.

Blaming the water board

Following last week’s fire, Paso Robles Mayor Steve Martin, state Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham and San Luis Obispo County Supervisor John Peschong joined forces to publicly excoriate the water board — first in a widely circulated letter that practically accused the water board of criminal behavior, and then in a news conference held in front off a burned-out home.

Yet the city has been glossing over its own failure to secure a long-term permit for brush clearance, as it was told to do last summer.

It’s also disillusioning that Cunningham did not reach out to the water board to hear its side of the story before engaging in a public smackdown of state employees.

These aren’t faceless bureaucrats, after all. These are real people in charge of protecting the state’s waterways and for that, they’re being attacked.

Sure, it seems ridiculous to worry about harming endangered species by removing brush in a riverbed when homes — and even lives — are in danger. But the city knows the rules, or it certainly should know them, and it’s disingenuous to blame the water board staff for doing its job.

Besides, dead brush isn’t the only problem here. Homeless encampments in the riverbed also are a potential source of fires. That’s clearly the city’s responsibility — not the water board’s.

Public reaction

After the city went public with its grievances, local residents flooded the water board’s executive officer, Matthew Keeling, with angry emails. Some said they would hold him personally responsible if their houses burned.

But here’s the thing: In disagreements between public agencies, rarely is one side totally to blame and the other completely innocent, and this is no exception.

The water board had been working with the city for months on a more permanent vegetation management plan and had been under the impression the city would comply with regulations.

“City and water board staff have met numerous times since last July to discuss the development and submittal of the long-term plan,” Keeling said via email. “We’ve been very patient with city staff on their forthcoming submittal ... and have provided them with the information they need to prepare the plan.”

Keeling expected to receive the document late last year or early this year. He tentatively planned to put it on the water board’s May agenda, so brush removal work could begin before the start of fire season.

The city never submitted the plan — for reasons that have not been spelled out — and is still several weeks away from doing so.

Keeling has been understandably upset about being made to look like the bad guy in all of this.

“I’m really shocked and perplexed by those types of statements,” Keeling told KEYT News. “I just think those statements are uninformed and disingenuous.”

Still, he offered a conciliatory statement to the residents of Paso Robles on Monday, via a letter to the editor published by the Paso Robles Daily News.

“This issue is a high priority for me and my staff, and I am personally working to open and maintain clear and amicable lines of communication between our respective staff and myself and elected officials to ensure this issue is addressed as expeditiously as possible to protect the Paso Robles community and its residents,” Keeling wrote.

Now it’s time for the city to do its part.

With climate change causing more extremes in temperature as well as longer and more intense fire seasons, it’s critically important for every public agency to develop a comprehensive fire prevention plan that prioritizes removal of dry vegetation on roadsides, riverbeds and other potential hot spots.

Paso Robles should stop pointing fingers at the regional water board and get to work on a permanent plan to protect its citizens.

This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 11:25 AM.