Oil Firm Asks for Delay in Wetlands Restoration
The planned re-saturation of a newly restored section of the Bolsa Chica wetlands should be delayed as much as eight months to avoid risking an oil spill, an oil company said in a letter to state and federal land managers.
The Aug. 24 filling of the 200-acre basin, representatives of Aera Energy LLC wrote, should be delayed long enough for the company to assess the danger.
State water quality officials have already approved a completed oil-risk study. Aera’s proposal did not go over well.
“If they insist we delay,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project manager Jack Fancher said, “we insist that there’s a cost associated with that, and we’ll have to work that out.”
The habitat restoration project, in an area that includes oil wells, has already cost $120 million, he said.
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