Report Tells of Tainted Soil at Wetlands

Experts have found soil contaminants, including 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 whether 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.

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.