Fight, surfers, fight!

A segment of the strongly opposed and rejected toll road that would have run through San Onofre State Beach is back on the state Regional Water Quality Control Board agenda — with the toll-road operators trying to get the road reinstated.

"We will be there to fight this," said Stephanie Sekich of the Surfrider Foundation. Surfrider has been fighting the project since it was first proposed in 2007. "We treat every hearing as if we could lose."

Calls and emails to the toll-road agency pushing the plan were not returned.

The March 16 hearing is the latest round in the long battle that started with a 40-mile proposed toll road called State Highway 241 that was supposed to run from Yorba Linda to the Interstate 5 at Camp Pendleton. It has turned into a mile-by-mile battle. The California Coastal Commission rejected the last 14 miles of the toll road in 2008, and thousands of San Diegans joined in the protest that seemingly defeated the toll-road plan to drive through San Diego County.

Currently, the road ends near Oso Parkway in the Rancho Margarita area. A trip the full length of the existing road costs between $2.75 and $3.75 for passenger vehicles — with lower prices for shorter jaunts. After the southern leg was rejected, the Transportation Corridor Agencies began floating the Tesoro Extension, a five-mile extension from Oso Parkway to Cow Camp Road, north of the Ortega Highway, in 2011.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board rejected the Tesoro Extension wastewater discharge application (for the water that will run off the road) in December 2013. According to board documents, the application was seen as an attempt to “piecemeal” the toll road through. But the Orange County toll-road operators appealed the local decision to the state, which decided the locals needed to do a better job of explaining why they rejected it.

"The Tessoro Extension has no other purpose but to be the northern section of the toll road we defeated," said Dan Silver of the Habitat League. "It's not a stand-alone. It has no value except as part of the larger toll road, and it puts their foot in the door so they can push it open later."

The regional water board staff has again recommended rejecting the Tesoro Extension and has provided lengthy documentation of its reasons for rejecting it. According to the available files, just 3 people wrote letters in support of the stand-alone road, while more than 2000 wrote letters opposing the road for this hearing, including more than a thousand from California Parks Foundation members.

"The first section of road is not only environmentally damaging, but this segment of the road would give [Transportation Corridor Agencies] momentum to complete the full road," Encinitas resident Reagan West wrote. "The full road would absolutely devastate fragile watershed, greatly impact San Onofre State Beach and the beloved recreation spot for more than 2.4 million visitors and surfers each year."

The next hearing is on March 16 at 9 a.m. at Liberty Station.