Bolsa Chica Cleanup a Possibility

Experts have found soil contaminants including oil compounds, arsenic, nickel and mercury at the Bolsa Chica wetlands, according to a report released Wednesday as tense negotiations continued over a possible state purchase of most of the land for a preserve.

But the federal report concludes that the pollution, blamed on decades of oil-field operations, can be cleaned up sufficiently for a preserve to be created at the ecologically sensitive wetlands.

The report helps illuminate why a cleanup of contaminants--and who should pay for it--has evolved as the central issue in this week’s grueling talks over a possible state purchase of 800 acres of the Bolsa Chica wetlands from the Koll Real Estate Group.

Those talks were continuing Wednesday night in Sacramento, and neither Koll nor government officials were predicting if a deal was near.

“We’re all working very hard to make this work to everybody’s satisfaction,” Koll Senior Vice President Lucy Dunn said late Wednesday.

Robert Hight, executive director of the state Lands Commission, said, “We are still negotiating. We’re still optimistic about a resolution.” The commission is scheduled to take up a possible purchase at its Friday meeting.

A state purchase, which would block construction of 900 homes, is supported by many environmentalists who have fought for years to save Bolsa Chica, California’s largest unprotected coastal wetlands south of San Francisco. But contamination has emerged as a major stumbling block, with no one accepting responsibility for cleaning up the entire site. That worries state and federal agencies trying to close a deal by a Dec. 30 deadline set by Koll.

Federal experts studying pollutants at Bolsa Chica are chiefly concerned with soil contamination found during recent tests, and their report highlights oil and metals discovered in former disposal sumps and under pipelines.

Contaminants such as oil compounds, arsenic, nickel and mercury were found in some soil samples at levels higher than those considered safe for a wetlands preserve like the one being planned, the report states.

The 70-page report issued Wednesday was written by a team made up largely of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, who evaluated extensive data collected this year during a $450,000 study of the site conducted by Tetra Tech Inc. The Times had requested the report under the Freedom of Information Act.

Federal officials on Wednesday also released 19 pages of comments from a Koll representative, criticizing the report and stating that it “continues to reflect a worst-case scenario on the extent of contamination.”

Koll notes in its comments that the contaminants found in the area study were in some cases no greater than the levels discovered in soil samples taken from the state-owned Ecological Reserve that borders Koll’s land at Bolsa Chica. And it adds that many of the contaminated areas pinpointed in the report are subject to ongoing cleanup by CalResources, a Shell Oil Co. affiliate and the current oil operator at the site.

CalResources has said it is not prepared to accept responsibility for cleaning up more than the 242 acres it leases.

While no cleanup cost estimates were contained in the report, the amount of cleanup liability not currently assigned reportedly could range from $5 million to $15 million, according to one source.

Federal officials say that the report’s findings reflect Bolsa’s history as an oil field, and that the results are not surprising.

“Overall, the contamination out there is something you’d expect to find in most oil fields,” said Donald Steffeck, division chief for environmental contaminants for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s western region.

But, Steffeck added, “it doesn’t minimize the fact that it’s going to take a substantial amount of money to do the cleanup.”

He noted that the study did include some good news, such as not finding severe ground water contamination. Also, despite earlier concerns, sampling near a former duck blind area did not find lead contamination from pellets used by duck hunters. No floating oil product was found at any oil well on the site, although some ground water contained hydrocarbons.

For years, environmentalists have fought plans by the Koll Real Estate Group to build 900 homes in part of the wetlands area and an additional 2,400 homes on an adjoining mesa, with Koll restoring another portion of wetlands.

In recent months, a plan has emerged that would join several state and federal agencies and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to help buy and restore the wetlands area. Most of the $85 million needed for purchase and restoration would come from the ports in exchange for permission to proceed with expanding those ports.