THE NATURAL PERSPECTIVE -- Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

The long history of dispute over Bolsa Chica is marked with few real

milestones.

The acquisition of the wetlands by the state in 1997 is one.

Another may be just around the corner.

Next month, at its meeting in Santa Monica, the California Coastal

Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing that may well be the

last decision to be made about residential development at Bolsa Chica.

Of course, postponement is always possible. In fact, postponement is

routine in Bolsa Chica matters.

But either in January or shortly thereafter, the fate of the mesa may be

sealed.

The landowner, Hearthside Homes, has received commission approval in the

past for its development project, only to have that approval overturned

by political or judicial challenges. Now the landowner is going back to

the commission again.

And now, the commission is much more environmentally sympathetic than it

has been in the past.

One commission member is our own Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff, a

longtime environmentalist who embodies the improvement in the commission.

This time the proposal is for a considerably smaller project than in the

past.

Gone are the marina and the breakwater and the boating channel and the

development in the salt marsh. Gone is the relocation of the eucalyptus

grove. Gone is the filling-in of Warner Pond. Gone are most of the

apartments and condos.

Is there anything else that the Coastal Commission could do to improve

the project other than outright denial?

Two of the leading local environmental groups, the Amigos de Bolsa Chica

and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, each have lists of a half dozen or so

issues.

Here are two that are of particular interest to me. The first is an “old”

issue, going back four or five years.

The Coastal Commission has authority to require buffer areas to be set

aside to protect resource areas from urban impacts. In 1996, the

commission ignored pleas for wide buffers by the city of Huntington Beach

and required only 50-foot wide buffers, narrower than it has often

required in other, less important areas.

Environmentalists are united in their hope that this time around, the

commission will insist on more significant buffers.

The Bolsa Chica Land Trust is requesting 100-meter buffers, keeping with

the suggestion of the state Department of Fish and Game and the

Environmental Protection Act.

An issue that has arisen since the 1996 hearing has to do with urban

runoff.

The landowner is submitting a plan to the commission that shows four

6-foot concrete drain pipes that would dump directly into Outer Bolsa

Bay.

Even if there were technological ways to clean that runoff of all its

trash and pollution before spilling it into the bay -- and there aren’t

-- the sheer force of the water would cause major erosion problems within

the existing ecological reserve.

And it would look junky as hell, a visual blight forever for every

resident and visitor who drives Pacific Coast Highway.

The Amigos have taken a strong stand against these drains.

A sobering thought about protecting native habitat from development is

that when the environment loses, it loses in perpetuity.

On the other hand, when we win, we just have to keep winning over and

over again.

At Bolsa Chica, the struggle has seemed like it would go on forever, with

one indecisive skirmish following another for decades.

This time it’s different.

This time, it’s for keeps.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.