A key state environmental oversight agency has launched an investigation into herbicide spraying by OC Public Works along South County’s San Juan Creek, which flows into Doheny State Beach.
Herbicides – primarily used to control vegetation – are a subset of pesticides, which in many cases pose health risks.
California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed a probe into OC Public Works, saying that the agency “is currently conducting an investigation into complaints of potential violations of the Fish and Game Code in San Juan Creek,” according to agency spokesman Cort Klopping in an emailed response to questions from Voice of OC.
“We are performing a compliance review to confirm whether OCPW has met all reporting and monitoring requirements under the Agreement,” wrote Klopping, who covers the South Coast and Inland Deserts Regions.
“We are also evaluating what changes may be necessary in OCPW’s new Agreement, which is currently in draft form, to ensure that impacts to fish and wildlife resources and protected species (e.g., CESA listed species) are avoided moving forward,” Klopping said.
Yet in reporting this column, it became increasingly clear that there’s numerous oversight gaps – raising questions about who’s actually responsible for making sure waterways stay clean.
Public concern about herbicides in the San Juan Creek took off this year after a group of local residents, now called the Creek Team, began alerting county officials to the controversial practice by OC Public Works, eventually mounting an effective social media campaign on Instagram after being ignored by officials.
[Read: Santana: Herbicide Could be Making Its Way to South OC Beaches]
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley later included the group as speakers at a public town hall she hosted last month where she announced that all spraying would be halted in her district while the issue was studied.
[Read: Santana: Herbicide Spraying of South OC Waterways Halted, For Now]
The herbicide issue has also illuminated the seemingly fractured patchwork of state and local regulatory agencies that may not be the most effective in terms of actually monitoring what is being sprayed where and when, much less measuring whether it’s causing any harm.
“There’s no consequences.” said Creek Team activist Bethany Nelms, who reviewed many spraying invoices that weren’t properly filled out, oversights that make honest measurement of environmental impacts from spraying almost impossible.
“It’s super scary,” Nelms said, “because no one is enforcing it.”
In trying to figure out who’s responsible for monitoring chemicals in areas as sensitive as local waterways, I found myself consistently going back to the activists, oftentimes with questions or to verify information.
It’s the same process activists have spent the last year doing – emailing, calling and meeting with officials across the state and county on the issue.
As always, these residents turned activists have learned a lot in the last year and logged a lot of miles digging through a host of bureaucratic agency archives.
Without their diligent work with the Public Records Act to find documents – like invoices and spraying reports – we would have never known about these oversight gaps, despite all the money being spent by taxpayers on things like permit fees, which are supposed to fund enforcement.
It also raises troubling questions – much like the controversy with former Supervisor Andrew Do – about who is actually checking invoices for services like herbicide spraying, which in this case have already been found to be improperly filled out.
“If we want to figure out what’s going on in our creeks and rivers we need transparency,” said Creek Team activist Brent Linas. “We got documents before and it forced a town hall.”
He added that county officials recently started ignoring requests for things like invoices on spraying in creeks around the county, now instead referring activists to annual reports.
It’s been noteworthy in my reporting how many agencies, agreements and permits there are on this issue and how little these state bureaucrats seem to communicate with each other – much less hold local agencies like OC Public Works accountable.
Keep in mind that OC Public Works are the folks that nearly burned down half the local National Forest about a year ago while trying to move some rocks around.
Now it seems there’s a countywide permit that governs what gets sprayed with what, called the Integrated Pest Management plan.
That’s where county supervisors can seemingly make the most immediate difference, which explains why Foley, her opponent in the upcoming election – State Assemblywoman Diane Dixon – and other supervisors are increasingly getting called on by the Creek Team
In addition to the county pest control plan, there’s also two key agreements – one with CA Fish and Wildlife and one with the state water board – that create guidance on the chemicals OC Public Works can use in local creeks.
Yet both agencies look at different things.
Fish and Wildlife is looking at habitat protection for endangered species like the Steelhead Trout or the Least Bell’s Vireo.
Yet from their comments at the county town hall sponsored by Supervisor Foley, the OC Public Works crew isn’t too happy about endangered species habitat because that seemingly gets in the way of their mission of flood control.
Now, keeping an eye out on the waterway itself are the folks at the state water resource board, who in theory monitor things like herbicide and pesticide spraying through a special permit they issued to the county.
Yet that permit has been expired now for years, even though officials insist it’s enforceable.
But are the standards updated?
And who’s keeping watch?
According to the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, county agricultural commissioners enforce all federal and state pesticide use laws and regulations at the local level, including those set by the state water board.
An agency spokesman told Voice of OC that “Pesticide applications must follow approved label requirements, adhere to any DPR regulations regarding use along with county permitting conditions and additionally follow water quality protection requirements established by the State Water Resources Control Board and Regional Water Boards.”
State Water Board staff said they are currently working on reissuing four pesticide discharge permits for OC Public Works into a consolidated general permit.
According to an agency spokesman, an informal draft was released for public comment in September 2025.
In addition, water board staff are reviewing comments and preparing a formal draft permit, which, according to officials, is anticipated to be released this summer.
Click here for the informal draft permit and additional updates.
Now while officials at the Department of Pesticide Regulation said the local county agriculture commission is in charge of keeping agencies like OC Public Works accountable on their permits, OC Agricultural Commissioner Jose Arriaga said his mandate is much more narrow.
In a staff letter recently sent to the Creek Team and verified by Arriago, his office told them, “our office will not be able to investigate matters related to OCPW’s NPDES Permit nor the APAP.”
Now, based on my questions, Arriago said he would be calling state officials to discuss what he can look into.
Arriago already found problems at OC Public Works with noticing and record keeping of spraying efforts in the San Juan Creek in a 2024 investigation – one where Arriago found a series of violations by OC Public Works.
He also confirmed there’s now a host of other investigations currently ongoing into OC Public Works spraying of local waterways.
“You don’t go back to neutral,” Arriago told me, adding that OC Public Works could expect more records inspections on a regular basis along with more looks out in the channels from his staff of eight inspectors.
Yet while it’s really good to know that Arriago’s staff is ramping and agencies like Fish and Wildlife are taking a deep dive into the impacts on the endangered species living inside the creek, the patchwork of agencies I just interviewed leave me deeply worried about who’s watching out for the people living in the neighborhoods around the creek and playing down at the beach.
