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By
David Reyes
Los
Angeles Times
July 31, 2006
When bulldozers finally smash through the wall of sand
separating the Pacific from the Bolsa Chica wetlands,
allowing millions of gallons of seawater to rush into the
marsh for the first time in 107 years, a hard-core group of
supporters will be on hand to cheer.
"This will be our dream realized," said Shirley
Dettloff, a local environmentalist who, like scores of
others, devoted decades to battling developers who wanted to
turn the Huntington Beach wetlands into a marina or an
oceanfront housing tract.
Spared, a portion of the 880-acre wetlands is now poised to
be reunited with the ocean as work crews finish shoveling
through 2 million cubic yards of sand to create a channel
linking the ecological reserve and the sea.
The job, scheduled to be completed Aug. 24, may end with
more of a trickle than a splash.
Project officials want to slow the velocity of the water as
it pours into Bolsa Chica and are expected to order the
contractor to unplug the inlet at low tide, during predawn
hours, to minimize the number of spectators for safety
reasons.
"Many of us who have been working on this for 30 years
would like a bit more for the opening, but I'm sure some of
us will be down there looking over the bridge at that
time," said Dettloff, a former Huntington Beach
councilwoman and former state Coastal Commission member.
Cutting the channel is seen by state biologists as the
keystone to one of the most ambitious and expensive wetland
restoration projects in state history. And although the
expected rebirth of the area as a major wildlife sanctuary
has environmentalists and naturalists excited, others are
leery of some of the potential side effects.
As the stagnant and murky waters of Bolsa Chica are drawn
back out to sea by the tides, there is concern that it could
— temporarily, at least — stain local ocean waters.
Still, the general feeling among all those who had a hand in
saving Bolsa Chica is that they are on the brink of an
astonishing achievement, even if much hard work lies ahead.
Because the wetlands were used for oil drilling for years,
the cleanup is extensive and the cost of the project has now
grown from $100 million to $147 million.
"You have to put this in the context of a region that
has lost 90% of its historic wetlands," said Robert
Hoffman, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist, who
is on the project's steering committee.
In addition to the mammoth task of scooping out nearly 2
million cubic yards of sediment, a bridge for PCH and
another for oil workers were built and several viewing areas
were added. Ocean water has been slowly pumped into the
wetlands to gradually raise the water level.
Although about 65 oil wells have been removed so far, oil
drilling will continue in a 250-acre section of the wetlands
until the operation is no longer economically viable. Then
it too will be cleared away.
State bonds provided revenue, but most of the restoration
costs were covered by the ports of Los Angeles and Long
Beach as part of a mitigation measure for port expansion.
"It's been a contentious, long road," said Jack
Fancher, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in
charge of the project. "It's been like a steeplechase
or a very long endurance race with obstacles."
But repairing an ecosystem that's been dysfunctional for
decades is a worthy cause, he said.
At one time, as many as 4,884 homes were proposed on 1,100
acres of the preserved wetlands. By 1996, the proposal had
shrunk to 3,300 homes. A year later, the state paid $25
million for 880 acres. That parcel was added to 300 acres
that landowner Signal Landmark had given to the state for
wetlands preservation in 1973. The result was the Bolsa
Chica Ecological Reserve, whose boundaries have since grown.
Members of a duck hunting club had cut off the wetlands from
the ocean in 1899, diking ponds to make it easier to catch
their prey. Oil drilling began after World War II, then
homes were built in the area.
Now, wetlands in general are recognized as vital filters for
urban runoff, way stations for migrating birds and habitats
for endangered species. They generate economic benefits by
restocking commercial ocean fisheries. And communities get
recreation spots for nature lovers, hikers and birders.
Bolsa Chica already attracts thousands of hikers and bird
watchers, who, armed with binoculars, watch herons,
pelicans, other diving birds, and threatened and endangered
species such as the Belding's savannah sparrow, California
least tern and light-footed clapper rail.
But the greater significance is its prime fisheries habitat,
said Hoffman, who said the area will essentially serve as a
fish maternity ward because of the wetlands' shallow, warmer
water.
Based on monitoring at the Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad —
a similar, $57-million restoration job ended there in 1996
— once the inlet opens, he said, "literally overnight
you get additional 30 species and in 10 years you can get
60."
For example, California halibut are dependent on wetlands
habitat for their first year, he said. Juveniles born
offshore drift into shallower waters, where the young settle
in bays and inshore banks snacking on fish, crabs, clams and
squid.
Surfers have a love-hate relationship with the project. They
smile at the new surfing peaks at the south end of Bolsa
State Beach north of the inlet, which they attribute to a
sandbar built from sediment dumped offshore from the
project's dredging activity. But they cringe when thinking
about chemicals, wildlife waste and anything else that may
be flushed out into the surf.
"We like the restoration, but some of us have set up a
water monitoring program and they intend to take daily
samples," said Don Slaven, a surfing veteran and member
of the Surfrider Foundation.
Bolsa Chica State Beach has a reputation for having clean
ocean water, in part because there are no creeks, storm
drains or rivers dumping bacteria-laden urban runoff, said
Monica Mazur, environmental health spokeswoman for the
Orange County Health Care Agency.
Project officials were aware of the bacteria potential and
avoided the danger by not adding any connections to existing
flood channels, Fancher said.
"Our conclusion is that the restored wetland
alternative that we have implemented will not increase the
frequency of beach health warnings at Bolsa Chica State
Beach," he said.
In addition, he downplayed whether oil field contamination
would flush into the ocean. What contamination was prevalent
was dug out and the remaining soil sampled for verification,
he said. The cleanup was endorsed by the Regional Water
Quality Control Board, he added.
Fancher did have good news for surfers: Once the inlet is
opened, the sandbar should remain.
"That should make for a popular surf break and good,
clean tidal water flow that won't degrade surf zone water
quality."
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