The Ballona Wetlands and Reality : A proposed partial restoration may be the best that can be achieved at this time

The Ballona Wetlands, near Marina del Rey, are about all that remains of the 1,800 acres of marsh that once stretched from Venice south to the bluffs of Playa del Rey, providing natural flood control and sustaining hundreds of animal and plant species. Construction of the Ballona Creek in the 1930s began the process of wetland degradation; construction of the Marina beginning in the 1960s pretty much completed it.

However, a recent accord to clean up Santa Monica Bay has renewed hope among environmentalists for restoration of the coastal wetlands, too. That hopeful possibility got a boost recently when the real estate development firm Maquire Thomas Partners agreed to an expanded improvement plan for the Ballona Wetlands.

This proposal, like last month’s accord on bay cleanup, has drawn deserved criticism as well as support from the environmental and business communities. Many critics consider these two proposals “good” efforts that nonetheless fall short of the ideal--a return to nearly a state of nature. But we question whether true restoration is realistic after decades of continuous development and unrelenting ecological destruction that could have been prevented in the first place. In other words, just what does it mean to restore tidal wetlands first degraded 60 years ago and now hemmed in by a congested city?

Environmentalists have fought hard to preserve the Ballona Wetlands, the degraded, last 200 acres of freshwater and saltwater marsh. And Maquire Thomas has been just as determined to build its proposed Playa Vista development--a residential, office, retail and hotel project--on surrounding land. Both groups have regarded success for one as defeat for the other.

To make a long and bitter story short, the developer has now tentatively agreed to pay for a restoration estimated at $12.5 million. This compromise plan, devised by scientists and environmentalists, is far more comprehensive than any other realistic plan yet contemplated by wetlands advocates.

Full restoration of the wetlands--permitting water in the marshes to rise and fall freely with the tides--would cost $50 million. The plan now on the table, still costly at a quarter of the expense, would use gates, channels and culverts to restore full tidal flow to some wetlands while limiting the tidal range elsewhere. Construction could be completed by 1997.

The plan is not ideal, but neither is it a capitulation by wetlands protectors. If formally approved by a host of public agencies, it will be a major revitalization--if not a true restoration--of a precious marine resource.