Inadequate Monitoring and Inappropriate Project Goals: A Case Study on the Determination of Success for the Forester Creek Improvement Project

In 2008 the “Forester Creek Improvement Project“ was completed near the mouth of Forester Creek, Santee, CA, along a 2-km section historically subject to flooding. With a cost of $36 million (US), the project’s goals were to: 1) improve water quality; 2) improve physical habitat and biodiversity; and 3) improve flood control. We evaluated if the project met these goals for water quality, physical habitat, and biodiversity. We evaluated the project’s monitoring data, conducted post-project monitoring, and analyzed data from other independent sources to assess goal attainment. The project’s required monitoring was insufficient to determine if any goals were met. Our own results found partial success, with only pH and water temperatures improved from pre-project conditions. No improvement was found for total dissolved solids or fecal coliform, for which the creek is impaired, and sediments contained toxic concentrations of urban-use pesticides. While the project’s monitoring was insufficient to document goal attainment, the project’s formal goals were largely infeasible due to degraded upstream conditions. The project should be considered a partial success in that riparian habitat has improved compared to the erosive and invasive species dominated pre-project condition and the original proposal by the City of Santee to line the creek with concrete. Forester Creek’s poor water quality, physical habitat, and biodiversity are driven by flow modification and pollution associated with urban development upstream, which must be addressed at the watershed scale and outside of the stream channel.