Dried Watershed Loses Wildlife, Nitrogen Removal Capabilities

It’s difficult to imagine California’s Hidden Valley Wildlife area deprived of the many birds that had once inhabited it. Sadly, the 70 acres of wetlands just south of the Santa Ana River dried up in 2010 after a severe storm wrecked the channel

Together, a group of local officials and conservationists are hoping that they can find the money and the means to refill the ponds and lure back the birds, according to The Press-Enterprise.

“We’d be lucky to see one or two of ’em here,” Robert Williams, park ranger supervisor for the Riverside County Regional Park and Open Space District, said.

Riverside City Councilman John Burnard, whose ward includes the wildlife area, said the creation of the ponds changed the area. He hated seeing that ecosystem lost and always hoped to help restore it.

The original Hidden Valley ponds were built around the 1950s by a duck-hunting club looking to attract its quarry, The Press-Enterprise reported. They became a public resource when the state bought the land and signed an agreement with Riverside County to manage it.

Eventually, Riverside began pumping treated wastewater from its Acorn Street sewer plant into the ponds.

In the early 1990s, faced with a state mandate to reduce the nitrogen content of its wastewater, the city struck a deal with the county to expand the wetlands and maintain the system of pipes, dikes, and channels in the riverbed that supplied the water. The wetlands naturally filter out nitrogen, which is consumed by plants and bacteria.

On a recent tour of the former ponds, officials who want them refilled saw disconnected sections of concrete pipe sitting useless and scarred by graffiti. A smaller vertical pipe that once fed a pond is now clogged with dirt, vines, and old beer bottles.

“I would love to hear as many creative ideas as possible as to what can happen here,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Jeff Brandt told the tour group, which included representatives of the city and county, Jurupa and Rubidoux community services districts, the Coastal Conservancy and the Santa Ana River Trust.

Though wastewater agencies are required to send set amounts of water to the river, officials said the pond system previously allowed water to flow in from the river and then back out again.