Panel OKs Bolsa Chica Restoration

The California Coastal Commission unanimously approved a $100-million plan Tuesday to restore the Bolsa Chica wetlands--cut off from the ocean a century ago--to their natural state.

Environmentalists and project planners cheered as the commission made its decision, which represents the last major hurdle of a decades-long battle to restore the wetlands, home to such endangered birds as western snowy plovers and least terns. Still raging is a separate battle over plans to build more than 300 homes on a bluff above the wetlands.

“This is a momentous day for us,” said Jack Fancher, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the main planner for the restoration project. “We are very, very happy to reach what is the de facto end of planning and the beginning of construction.”

The plan promises to turn the 1,200-acre coastal expanse of polluted salt marshes, mud flats, pools and oil rigs into a flourishing ecosystem of rare flora and fauna. It calls for cutting a 360-foot-wide channel through the beach that lies between the ocean and the wetlands, and building a traffic bridge over the channel.

The commission’s 8-0 vote, which came after nearly two hours of discussion at the meeting in downtown Los Angeles, means that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s restoration plan complies with the rules set forward by the state’s Coastal Act.

“I’m elated,” said Shirley Dettloff, a commissioner and Huntington Beach councilwoman who was a founding member of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, formed in 1976 to preserve and restore the site. “It’s the highlight of all the meetings we’ve had on Bolsa Chica.”

The project still needs approvals or permits from three other state and federal agencies, but is expected to win those easily. Work is expected to begin in 2003 and take about three years.

Once a flourishing coastal marsh, the Bolsa Chica wetlands were cut off from the ocean a century ago by duck hunters who filled in a natural channel to create a better hunting ground. Still, Bolsa Chica--meaning “Little Pocket” in Spanish--is the largest remaining wetlands complex in Southern California and a key stopover for migratory birds.

Government officials, developers and environmentalists have been arguing for three decades over the wetlands, which almost became part of a major residential development and marina off Huntington Beach. The state stepped in four years ago and bought 880 acres for $25 million.

The channel allowing ocean water into the wetlands is expected to raise the water levels, and better circulate the water, helping several species of imperiled birds and fish.

The channel proposal is not universally popular. Some fear that opening up the wetlands will bring bacteria from the marshland into the ocean off Bolsa Chica State Beach, one of the cleaner coastal stretches in Orange County. Those opponents to the plan, many of whom are surfers, sent letters to the commission but did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

The tidal channel will be carved through five acres of the state beach, which attracts more than 2 million visitors annually.

Wildlife officials have said that studies and similar experiences elsewhere show that the beach’s water quality will be unaffected.

The approved plan stipulates that if the ocean water’s bacteria levels rise, the commission can order changes to improve water quality.

Earlier this month, the commission’s staff had recommended denying the project. Their main objection was a proposed six-lane bridge to replace a four-lane section of Pacific Coast Highway that would be razed to make way for the channel. In an unexpected move, Caltrans stopped demanding a six-lane bridge, allowing the project to move forward.

“We have a severely impaired ecosystem. It’s not dead,” said biologist Fancher. “There are parts still existing. We’re going to revive this patient and bring it back to full function.”