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California

Funds OKd for Bolsa Chica, Newport Bay

By RICHARD MAROSI
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The Board of Governors of the Southern California Wetlands Clearinghouse on Friday authorized more than $5 million in funding for local restoration projects, including two in Orange County.

A project in the Bolsa Chica wetlands will receive $500,000. The authorization also completes funding for the $7.4-million Upper Newport Bay dredging project.

“This funding is vital to the efforts underway to restore this important aquatic habitat, improve water quality and still allow ample recreational boating use in the bay,” said Doug Wheeler, secretary for resources for the group.

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Upper Newport Bay, at 752 acres, is the largest functioning salt marsh ecosystem in Southern California, providing habitat for rare and endangered species.

Along the Southern California coast, the funds will be used for the acquisition and restoration of more than 700 acres of wetlands.

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Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.

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