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By Daniel Yi
Los Angeles Times
August 24, 2005
State and federal agencies charged with restoring the
1,100-acre Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach are
seeking an additional $23 million in public funds for the
massive project, one of the largest of its kind in state
history.
The new funds would bring the tab for the project to more
than $100 million, paid mostly by the ports of Long Beach
and Los Angeles.
The ports have paid close to $90 million for the restoration
in exchange for state environmental credits that the ports
can use if their own expansion projects encroach on
protected areas.
A committee of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners
approved a plan Monday to pay an additional $11.4 million to
the wetlands project in exchange for more environmental
credits. The Port of Los Angeles will consider an identical
proposal in September, a spokeswoman said.
Robert Kanter, the Port of Long Beach's planning director,
said his agency was approached by the Bolsa Chica Wetlands
Steering Committee, a group of state and federal agencies
charged with overseeing the project. "There was some
unanticipated costs associated with the cleanup,"
Kanter said. Their financial "projections were going to
have some shortfall."
Jane Hendron, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, which is on the steering committee, denied that the
money was needed because of cost overruns or shortfalls. She
said the money would be used to enhance the project.
Restoring the wetlands for wildlife in the area will require
dredging millions of cubic yards of sand and removing
pollutants such as heavy metals and mercury, among other
tasks. The project is expected to be completed by 2008.
Part of the ports' initial money went toward buying much of
the land from private owners. About $65 million was
earmarked for the restoration, but long-term maintenance
wasn't taken into account.
On Monday, the full Long Beach port commission will consider
the proposal, which is expected to pass, Kanter said. Under
the proposal, which state environmental agencies must still
approve, the port would earn roughly 38 acres of expansion
rights into protected areas.
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