A Sound Environmental Trade-Off : Past Failures in Establishing New Wetlands Should Not Deter New Tollway Pact

The creation of man-made wetlands to replace those displaced by development is always a tricky business. And in Orange County, the recent record suggests that even with the best stated intentions, things don’t always pan out. Only a few such projects have worked, and many have failed through neglect or poor engineering.

Only a handful of more than 50 such projects to create freshwater wetlands in Orange County have been deemed successful. Mindful of the growing track record, the various oversight agencies reviewing plans for the controversial San Joaquin Hills tollway insist that new wetlands be planted and growing a full year before the bulldozers roll. And these environmental protection review agencies--the Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service--are saying that the existing plans of proponents to replace wetlands are insufficient.

As it is, the Transportation Corridor Agencies will spend more than $8 million to create almost 20 acres in exchange for the 14 that would be destroyed. The road is to cross 15 creeks over its 17 miles through South County. But the oversight agencies, though taking a very hard line up front, are demonstrating their political sensitivity to public concern about the road.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies says it is confident on reaching an accord with them, and had agreed previously to spend more than $2 million creating 28 acres of wetlands near Ortega Highway on the Foothill tollway. State fish and game officials say they are pleased with that effort.

The trade-off should work, even if the recent record of failure elsewhere has review agencies looking warily at a proposal for an environmentally sensitive part of Orange County. So while the oversight agencies and the tollway proponents still have some distance to close up, they need only work a bit more to find a middle ground.