Critics Oppose an Inlet to Bolsa Chica Wetlands

A proposal by state and federal agencies to create an inlet connecting the Bolsa Chica wetlands to the sea drew criticism from a number of beachgoers at a Thursday hearing in Huntington Beach on plans for restoring the 1,200-acre marsh.

Some expressed concern that a 360-foot-wide inlet would allow tainted urban runoff into the surf, prompting beach closings and endangering swimmers’ health.

The hearing was part of the environmental review of seven proposals to restore Bolsa Chica, one of the largest and best-known wetlands in a region that has lost more than 90% of its coastal marshes to development. Five of those plans call for cutting a new inlet across Bolsa Chica State Beach to allow ocean tides to flow into the wetlands for the first time in a century.

Restoration planners call the inlet essential to reviving the wetlands as a nursery for ocean fish such as halibut and bass and as a haven for migrating waterfowl.

That inlet, however, is proving the most controversial facet of the planned $100-million project.

“As the proposal is written, I think there are definitely problems with the inlet,” said Ken Kramer, president of the California State Lifeguard Assn. The inlet could also prove an “attractive hazard” to young waders and could confuse boaters in search of a marina, he said.

Inlet opponents included several speakers from Surfrider Foundation, a coastal environmental group. A few favored the single design that would not require an inlet.

Others, though, praised the state and federal effort to rejuvenate Bolsa salt marshes, ponds and oil field sites by returning ocean tides to the area, wedged between Huntington Beach and the sea.

Some had mixed views, including toxins expert John Scandura, who called the government-preferred plan the best of seven alternatives but cautioned that cleaning up contamination left behind by oil operations could prove costly and time-consuming. That cleanup could send trucks laden with contaminated dirt through city streets, he said.

About 60 people attended the afternoon hearing on the draft environmental documents for the project, spearheaded by the California State Lands Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Funding would come primarily from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which contributed $79 million in exchange for permission to fill marine habitat for port expansion projects.