Surfrider Foundation’s Stance on Restoration

Re “Limit on New Sea Walls Urged,” May 23

In your article your reporter wrote: “Surfrider worries that a proposal to build a pair of jetties across the beach to allow seawater into the Bolsa Chica wetlands would unleash pollutants into the surf zone and increase beach erosion.”

I was shocked at the inference that the proposed wetland restoration project would destroy Bolsa Chica State Beach. I went to the Surfrider Web page and read their press release and looked in their report for a “most threatened beach” list. I could not find any such statements on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation. On their Web page I did find the following statement:

“Wetlands Deserve Our Protection. Our coastal environment is precious and wetlands are a critical part of it. Surfrider Foundation activists are committed to the preservation of natural coastal areas, the regeneration of ailing wetlands and the continuing experimentation with the creation of artificial wetlands.”

The recently released Bolsa Chica Lowland Restoration Project Final environmental impact report/statement clearly establishes the large benefits to wetlands and fish and wildlife in the restoration plan. The potential impacts of the project on beach sand and water quality Bolsa Chica State Beach have been completely analyzed and documented. Not only would the restoration project not destroy or poison the beach, it would not have any more than short-term, minor impacts during construction.

For whatever reason, the L.A. Times did not write anything about the release of the Final EIR/S or its well-documented, science-based conclusions about the proposed inlet, water quality or the beach. Yet while writing about Surfrider’s State of the Beach report, you interjected unfounded and hyperbolic or emotional opinions of individuals about the restoration project.

Jack M. Fancher

Irvine