Warning Is Too Late to Halt Work at Ancient Site

The state parks department mistakenly permitted backhoe trenching by a private developer in a known prehistoric archeological area at Crystal Cove State Park that could date back 4,000 years.

Five days after the trenching occurred, a state archeologist reviewed the digging plans and warned Sacramento parks officials that work could not begin until precautions were put in place to protect prehistoric sites in the area, state records show.

But by then, a backhoe had carved an estimated seven to 10 trenches, 10 feet deep, inside a National Register historic district within the park. Some digging was within the boundaries of the ancient archeological site, but it remains uncertain whether any damage was done, state officials said. Another trench tore up an area believed to harbor a sensitive plant, prompting a state ecologist to write superiors that he was “very concerned with the damage done.”

State officials say they have not had time to investigate the Jan. 28 trenching at the archeological site, which contained many shells and is believed to be an ancient fishing village for Orange County inhabitants of 40 centuries ago. One official said it is not considered a significant site.

But the archeologist who explored the site after its 1994 discovery calls it “a perfect time capsule” apparently protected for thousands of years under a thick layer of soil.

“It is a pure time capsule. We don’t often find pure time capsules,” said archeologist Paul Chace, who recorded the site on an inventory overseen by an office of the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

*

The trenching was conducted as part of soil tests for a planned resort at the park’s colony of weather-beaten oceanfront cottages, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The trenching was done without a required state review, The Times reported last week. In fact, the overall resort plan has not yet undergone environmental study or received required approvals.

At the state Native American Heritage Commission, Executive Director Larry Myers learned about the digging from a reporter.

“They should have notified us, and they should have reached out to the Native American community,” Myers said. He criticized the parks system for not stationing an archeologist in the park during the initial digging.

The archeological site was discovered by accident in 1994 during the widening of Coast Highway, according to the 46-page study Chace prepared for Keith Companies, an engineering firm. The site contained a buried level of dense mussel shells about 20 centimeters thick, records show. Researchers found what appeared to be food remains of ancient people, including mussel shells, oyster shells, and remnants of sardines, crab, rabbit and bone fragments of mammals such as sea otter and whales.

Such food remnants can offer clues about how prehistoric people lived. The Crystal Cove site, for example, contained remains of sharks found in offshore waters. That would mean that the ancient inhabitants used seagoing craft.

Radiocarbon dating of two mussel shells from the site showed them to be about 4,000 years old.

*

While old shell is found scattered in many spots along the coast, intact shell layers can give new insight into how people lived thousands of years ago, archeologists said.

“If it is intact, I’d consider it significant,” said Patricia Martz, professor of anthropology at Cal State Los Angeles and former chairwoman of the state Historic Resources Commission.

And Chace’s report says that the intact shell layer uncovered at Crystal Cove in 1994 “was immediately judged to be significant as an ancient archeological resource retaining an unusual integrity.”

How far the shell layer extends under the soil remains a mystery. The portion discovered in 1994 was studied, then covered again.

*

Then, four years later, Crystal Cove Preservation Partners, the developers, geared up for geotechnical testing to determine soil quality on the resort site. Roy Roberson, a partner in the group, referred questions Friday to parks spokesman Ken Colombini, who said he understands that the developer was unaware when the work began that the district contained archeological sites. Roberson and state officials have said the state gave the developer the go-ahead to proceed.

Boring work was done Jan. 27 and trenching the next day, records show.

But a Sacramento parks official did not even ask state specialists in San Diego to review and approve the project until digging was underway, according to interviews and state records obtained by The Times under the state Public Records Act.

That official, Alan Tang, faxed the specialists a project evaluation form on the afternoon of Jan. 27, the first day of digging, records show. He included a draft form for a so-called categorical exemption, meaning a project has so little impact that it is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.

“I think it was his assumption that there wasn’t going to a problem,” Colombini said.

*

Specialists began their reviews, only to learn the project had moved ahead, said Karen L. Miner, a parks environmental coordinator. As a result, the trenching and early boring work was never approved under the state Environmental Quality Act or under the state code for evaluating effects on historic facilities or archeological sites.

News of the trenching sparked memos from two parks employees. Michael Sampson, a state archeologist, wrote Sacramento on Feb. 3 that three archeological sites lie within the district, and that two proposed soil-test sites “definitely lie at the location at a large, significant buried site.” Sampson recommended that testing be done away from known sites and that the developer hire an archeologist to monitor all excavations.

Instead, the state has chosen to have a parks archeologist on site during the remaining testing, which began Thursday and calls for 24-inch borings to be drilled 30 to 80 feet into the ground. That work has been granted an exemption from further environmental review.

One trench was dug in an area occupied by Turkish rugging, a plant whose status is being debated in scientific circles. Some botanists--including local plant expert Fred Roberts of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service--believe a subspecies of the plant grows only at Crystal Cove State Park and possibly in the Newport Coast area and Torrey Pines. If that is true, “it’s very, very rare,” Roberts said.

In a memorandum, a parks ecologist complained that the trench affecting the plant was not even on the map he received from Sacramento.

“That’s one question that needs to be answered,” said Richard Rayburn, chief of the department’s resource management division. He said an internal review is underway to determine how the problem occurred, and how any damage to the plants and archeological site might be remedied.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Digging In

An archeological site may have been damaged by a private developer’s soil testing at Crystal Cove State Park. The site contained mussel shells believed to be 4,000 years old, along with remains of sardines, crab, shark, rabbit and other meals of Orange County’s prehistoric residents.