State, U.S. Plan to Buy Wetlands Unveiled

A far-reaching, $91-million plan to buy and restore the Bolsa Chica wetlands, ensuring public ownership of one of Southern California’s most fabled and fought-over coastal properties, was announced Tuesday by state and federal officials.

However, two oil companies were still locked in negotiations late Tuesday in an attempt to reach final accord on an undisclosed aspect of the complex deal, which would transfer 880 acres of Bolsa Chica to the State Lands Commission.

The commission is scheduled to approve the deal at a meeting in Huntington Beach today.

Most of the money used to acquire the wetlands would be contributed by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which would get credit for preserving wetlands that would allow them to proceed with current and future expansion plans.

For decades, the wide expanse of salt marshes and mud flats has captivated and frustrated developers and environmentalists alike. Developers dreamed of building homes there, while conservationists fought to save it as an oasis for birds, fish and hikers.

Now, after years of bargaining and delays, the conservationists may have won.

The sale hinges on the signing before today of several legal documents that were still being reviewed late Tuesday by those crafting the agreement--landowner Koll Real Estate Group, two oil companies, and state and federal agencies.

The oil companies, Shell Oil affiliate CalResources and Phillips Petroleum, were still in discussions late Tuesday, state officials said.

“CalResources and Phillips have not yet resolved all of the issues between them. Both parties are bending over backward to make this deal happen, but it hasn’t happened yet,” said Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, chairman of the Lands Commission.

If no resolution is reached before today’s meeting, the commission could direct its executive director, Robert Hight, to act on its behalf and set a deadline, perhaps 48 hours, Davis said.

“I’m optimistic that all parties will come to agreement tomorrow--at week’s end at the very latest,” Davis said.

State Resources Secretary Douglas Wheeler said late Tuesday that he understood there was no final agreement among the private parties “owing to the fact that Phillips has raised at this late hour” an issue unrelated to Bolsa Chica.

Phillips could not be reached for comment, but a CalResources spokeswoman said, “There remain some issues to be resolved, but we’re working diligently toward a successful resolution.”

Koll spokeswoman Lucy Dunn said, “My understanding is that there should be a final deal tomorrow.” Officials remained upbeat, saying that problems could well be smoothed out by today.

Indeed, state and federal officials felt confident enough to hold a gala news conference Tuesday morning, explaining their plans to buy the wetlands from Koll for $25 million, and using the remainder of the funds from the two ports to restore the wetlands and create an inlet between the Pacific Ocean and the wetlands.

Standing at the footbridge leading into the wetlands, officials applauded the project as a means of purchasing and restoring California’s largest unprotected coastal wetlands south of San Francisco.

They saluted the plan as the product of an unlikely coalition of government and business, Republicans and Democrats, environmentalists and oil companies.

“It’s an incredible cast of unlikely partners,” said Felicia Marcus, regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Getting this group to agree on lunch would be an amazing accomplishment.”

Gov. Pete Wilson, speaking to the group by telephone from Sacramento, called the plan “truly a win-win agreement for the Southland.”

And George T. Frampton Jr., outgoing assistant Interior Department secretary, called Tuesday “a wonderful day for the people and the wildlife of California.”

But even during the speeches, key negotiators were standing on the fringes of the crowd, some conferring or pressing cellular phones to their ears.

A few issues in negotiations remained unresolved that are “technical but not insignificant,” Frampton said. An Interior Department spokeswoman said later Tuesday that she could not confirm that a final deal was in place.

And a continuing split in the environmentalists’ ranks was apparent when a dozen people arrived with brightly colored signs urging the preservation of not only the wetlands but also a nearby mesa also owned by Koll.

Koll has long planned 3,300 homes for the Bolsa Chica area, with most clustered on a surrounding mesa, but 900 on the wetlands themselves--a feature of the development plan that has stirred the most concern among environmentalists.

With the state purchase, the wetlands homes would not be built. But some continue to oppose the mesa development, and the signs hoisted Tuesday bore such slogans as “Now Save the Mesa” and “Mesa + Wetlands = One Ecosystem.”

A key sticking point in the past was the discovery last year of mercury, arsenic and other contaminants in Bolsa Chica’s soils, left over from decades of oil-field operations. Hundreds of oil pumps still dot the wetlands.

So state and federal negotiators have worked to craft guarantees that taxpayers will not be forced to pay for cleanups. Under the plan, Shell Oil Co., CalResources and Phillips Petroleum Co. would fund the oil-related cleanup, while Koll would be responsible for cleanups unrelated to oil production, according to state officials. CalResources is the current oil operator at Bolsa; Phillips operated there in the past.