While reading over the Wildomar City Council Agenda for the upcoming meeting on Wednesday March 12, 2014 I came across Item 2.2 Appeal of Minor Changes to Tentative Tract Map 25122 CV Communities along with Item 2.3 Appeal of Minor Changes to Tentative Tract Map 32078 CV Communities.
While reading the reports submitted I got to wondering about the fill dirt (a reported 245,000 cubic yards) that is currently onsite and wether any government official knows where it came from. This is important in light of the problems associated with the Autumnwoods Estate development.
When one looks at the aerial photographs on the County of Riverside Land Information System for 2004 one notes there is no Autumnwoods Estate Development and no fill dirt on the proposed tracts located at McVicar and Palomar (formerly Rancho Fortunado). In 2007 Autumnwoods Estates is completed and a large mountain of fill dirt is forming on the tracts in question.
During previous discussions at planning commission meetings the question was asked about this imported dirt and where it came from. These questions were never really answered except to point out that a previous developer who is no longer in business brought the dirt to the site before Wildomar became a city.
This in no way should alleviate the City of Wildomar’s responsibility in identifying where this dirt came from. If no records exist then this dirt should be ordered removed in its entirety and the new developer should start from scratch to bring in new dirt with a known origin after testing the site left over after removal.
Some may say just test the fill dirt, the problem is all it takes is a very small amount of dirt to contaminate the whole lot. 245,000 cubic yards of fill dirt assuming it hauled in 20 yards at a time in a set of double trailers takes 12,250 trips and all it take is one load to contaminate the whole site.