Rainbow Creek

It started several months ago. Apparently owners of a creek front property past the hairpin curve on Willow Glen Rd. created a ramshackle encampment and installed some really ugly chains and fences at every conceivable opening. They typically scowled at you when you drove by.

I couldn't really figure out what was up because you couldn't build on the banks of Rainbow Creek, I honestly didn't know what they were doing. Was it a campsite? Why would anyone go to so much trouble destroying a riparian area?

They felled a large Washingtonia palm and just left it lying there near the creekbed, where it sits to this day. 

Very odd. 

I know they are not native but why kill it and leave it as an eyesore? Like dogs marking their territory.

Last week they dumped gravel and spread it around, very close to the creek.

Yesterday when I drove by I saw the tire tracks across the creek for the first time.

Now I understand. 

It appears that they are using this spot as an entrance to their landlocked property. 

I have lived here for 46 years. 

I have seen this creek rise to the top of its banks and over in 1993. 

Four people were lost in the floodwaters that year. 

Their bodies have never been found.

Using the creek for entrance and egress is very ill advised. 

Contaminating it is criminal, in my opinion.

Rainbow Creek is a major tributary to the Santa Margarita River, a stone's throw away.

How can people be allowed to use it as a crossing on their property?

I was once a real estate developer and there are a lot of CEQA and NEQA regulations that govern riparian habitat.

How does the County of San Diego, F.P.U.D., the Watermaster of the Santa Margarita River, The Wildlands Conservancy and Camp Pendleton, which relies on the river for potable water for our troops, allow this encroachment?

I'm very interested in seeing who allowed this to happen?

Is it legal?

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Postscript - I have a case number with county code compliance now. Will keep you informed.