Federal Agency Clears Way for O.C. Tollway

Angering environmentalists, federal wildlife officials on Friday cleared the way for construction of Orange County’s controversial San Joaquin Hills tollway, even though it would destroy some prime nesting grounds of the California gnatcatcher.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the $1.1-billion road poses “no jeopardy” to the species because the county has agreed to create a new habitat for the bird, mostly at an old garbage landfill in Irvine.

The decision--a resounding victory for county tollway builders--comes less than three weeks before the federal agency must decide whether to add the gnatcatcher to the nation’s endangered species list.

Even if the gnatcatcher is listed as an endangered species before the road is graded, Friday’s ruling means tollway officials can quickly get a permit for construction without further negotiations or delays.

Environmentalists were irate, saying the tollway agency and federal transportation officials rushed to beat the March 17 listing deadline. They said the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision undercuts the process of protecting the tiny songbird and several dozen other rare species that live in coastal sage scrub.

“How can they do that? That’s absurd,” said Sandy Lucas, chairwoman of the Laguna Conservancy, one of several environmental groups trying to block the tollway from being built.

Wildlife biologists say the six-lane tollway will cut through coastal hills between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach that provide rich habitat for gnatcatchers. It will now be difficult, if not impossible, to design preserves ensuring the survival of the species, environmentalists maintain.

The decision gives the county tollway agency all the necessary environmental approval to build the road. The only remaining obstacles are several lawsuits by environmentalists, and tollway officials say grading will begin in April or May.

Officials with the county Transportation Corridor Agencies heralded the wildlife agency’s decision as a balanced, fair way to ensure that transportation needs can be met without delay, while still protecting the bird.

“We’re very pleased that (we) could work cooperatively with the Fish and Wildlife Service to develop this plan,” said William Woollett Jr., the tollway agency’s executive director. “I think, frankly also, that there is a net gain in terms of the habitat that we will be replacing,” he said.

Federal Fish and Wildlife Service biologists say they had no choice under the Endangered Species Act to rule as they did because the road does not imperil the entire species, only some nesting pairs.

These officials say they were careful to ensure that the road builders will provide as much protection of the gnatcatcher as would be required if the bird were already listed as an endangered species.

“This (ruling) is written as though the gnatcatcher were already listed,” said Fish and Wildlife Service supervising biologist Jack Fancher. “It does satisfy our concerns for minimizing” harm to the species.

According to the law, a project that involves federal funding gets a coveted “no jeopardy” ruling unless it “reduces the likelihood of the survivability of the species.”

The road could harm 30 pairs of gnatcatchers and 44 pairs of cactus wrens, another rare bird, according to the ruling by the Fish and Wildlife Service. But that alone is probably not enough to cause extinction, since an estimated 2,000 pairs of each species exist in Southern California, the ruling says.

“Although the proposed impacts to the gnatcatcher and cactus wren are substantial, the project area is not considered essential for the long-term survival of the species,” the ruling says.

Fancher said “it’s a misconception from the point of the public as to just what the Endangered Species Act does. It’s a project-stopper only if you conclude there is jeopardy (of extinction).”

Woollett of the tollway agency said the decision “provides the assurance that construction can proceed, whatever status the government finally decides to give to the gnatcatcher. . . . This should minimize any delays related to the Endangered Species Act.”

The 17.5-mile tollway, scheduled for completion in early 1996, would extend California 73 near John Wayne Airport to Interstate 5 near San Juan Capistrano. Daily traffic is projected at 120,000 vehicles by the year 2010.

In exchange for damaging about 155 acres of coastal sage scrub in the San Joaquin Hills, tollway officials agreed to try to create 268 new acres of scrub.

Of that total, 140 acres would be built on the county’s old Coyote Canyon landfill in Irvine, off Newport Coast Drive. The landfill was closed down in 1991. Another 128 acres would be planted along the slopes of the new tollway.

Elisabeth Brown, a biologist and environmentalist who is president of Laguna Greenbelt, said the landfill is an inappropriate place for nesting birds since decaying garbage gives off methane fumes.

“Just what you want is a bunch of birds breathing methane,” Brown said.

Tollway agency officials, however, said it is a good site because it provides a key link between large areas of protected parkland and wildlife habitat next to Irvine, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

“All I can say is that the people (at the wildlife agency) who have both the responsibility and the expertise to deal with this have made the decision that this . . . will be positive as a wildlife habitat,” said tollway agency spokesman Mike Stockstill.

Whether man-made coastal sage scrub works well for wildlife is unknown, however. Only a few such mitigation projects have been attempted, and most are too young to reach a conclusion, experts say.

“When has mitigation ever worked? The birds don’t understand (mitigation). Are they going to pick up the birds and move them?” Lucas said. “Do they expect the birds to find it, that if they build it (sage scrub) they will come? That’s absurd!”

Brown said this decision will ruin the effort by the Wilson Administration to bring developers, environmentalists and local governments together to voluntarily create preserves based on science.

“It cuts the heart out of (the preservation effort) before they even start,” said Brown of Laguna Greenbelt. “At this stage, the service has no business issuing a no-jeopardy decision. I don’t care if they were going to buy all the coastal sage in San Diego County. It’s still wrong.”

Environmentalists accused officials in the wildlife agency of caving in to pressure from road-builders and politicians.

“If you didn’t know better, you’d think James Watt was still in power,” Michael Phillips, executive director of the Laguna Conservancy, said in reference to the Interior secretary under Ronald Reagan. “You just can’t trust any government anymore.”

The tollway agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation have been consulting with the wildlife agency for about six months. The road itself has been planned for almost 20 years.

Also on Friday, the tollway project got at least a temporary setback on the financial front. A Wall Street firm refused to rate $1.1 billion in tax-exempt revenue bonds to be sold next week to finance the road.

Standard & Poor’s, a well-known rating service, criticized a preliminary bond offering statement released this week by tollway officials.

S&P; said tollway officials set aside inadequate reserves to cover payments to bond purchasers in the event toll revenues are weak or delayed, or if the contractor fails to complete the project.

Tollway officials had been buoyed earlier this week when Fitch Investor’s Service of New York gave the bonds a “BBB” rating, one notch above so-called “junk” bonds.

TOLLWAY TRIUMPH

Orange County officials won a major victory Friday when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the San Joaquin Hills Tollway would not jeopardize populations of the California gnatcatcher, a rare bird. Work on the $1.1-billion, 17.5-mile project is expected to begin in April or May. But environmental lawsuits may delay the project.