Cal Poly and the state Department of Water Resources have been at loggerheads for the better part of a year over plans to route the State Water Project Pipeline through some majestic oak trees on the University campus.

At long last, that situation may be changing.

The Biology Department faculty wrote in a widespread letter early last year that the projected pipeline construction would cause "unacceptable destruction of irreplaceable resources," including the destruction of at least one oak grove.

In the spring, a Cal Poly negotiator and engineers for the Department of Water Resources worked out some modifications that would avoid some of the destruction.

By July, however, the DWR terminated the negotiations.

In December, a committee of university faculty and administrators met a brick wall when they talked with DWR representatives. It became clear that the state agency was not willing to consider any proposed changes because they had let the construction contract based on plans that were never approved by Cal Poly.

But that wasn't the end of it by any means.

After that came an outpouring of public indignation, students organized meetings in the dorms and developed research projects and class presentations. One hike to the pipeline drew 100 participants.

Then on Feb. 27 Cal Poly President Warren Baker stepped into the midst of the controversy by writing a strong letter to the Department of Water Resources stating that the university would not permit the construction of the pipeline on is planned route because of irreparable environmental dmage it would cause.<> On March 6, Baker said he had met with David Kennedy, chief executive of the DWR, and got an agreement that construction would be halted and the state would begin new surveys to try to find a way to avoid uprooting the oaks.

Baker said he was guardedly optimistic.

"They have agreed to explore using construction techniques that are much more discreet and which are far less damaging to the environment," Baker told the Telegram Tribuse.

He said his impression was that "there's pretty good chance that none of the oaks will have to be damaged."

But this week, construction crews started bulldozing a 120 foot swath of farmland along the originally planned route toward the oaks.

Steven Marx, a Cal Poly English professor--taking a page from the Tiananmen Square standoff in China seven years ago--stood in the dozer's path. As a result the work was stopped.

Poly officials planned to get a restraining order against the project, but that was called off after the director of the California Resources Agency, Douglas P. Wheeler, notified Baker that no further work would take place "until all parties are in agreement" on the project.

In our view, the state agency was clearly wrong in laying out the pipeline route without consulting University officials in the first place.

Instead of stonewalling for so many months, the Department of Water Resources should have recognized its mistake early last year and made arrangements to rectify the situation then.

But that is all water under the bridge now. We trust the state agency in its deliberations with another state agency wil keep its word and find a way around what is to Cal Poly--and the community--a priceless piece of property.

Our hats are off to all those who refused to give in.

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