Few bones left to throw

Activists and some Native Americans may be angry about the remains reported found on the Bolsa Chica mesa over the past few years, but their options to fight the developer now are slim. All the excavations are done, and even opponents of the digging say they don’t see much legal recourse.

Their complaint is about the recent — they say belated — revelation that 174 sets of ancient remains have been found on the Bolsa Chica mesa over the past few years, half since the groundbreaking of a housing development there 18 months ago.

The Bolsa Chica Land Trust, the open-space preservation group that helped kick off the controversy last week, doesn’t see too many easy ways forward. Options are few, Executive Director Flossie Horgan said.

It’s late in the game for opponents to derail or modify the development. Not only do the planned houses have all their permits from the California Coastal Commission, but numerous other agencies have signed off on it.

Repeated requests for comment from developer Hearthside Homes have gone unanswered.

A last-ditch effort might be to ask the Coastal Commission to revoke its permits based on the significance of the site, but that’s unlikely to be effective, Horgan said. The Land Trust has unsuccessfully tried that before, she noted. They have even failed to secure national historic status for the site, she said.

“If we were to go forward and ask for a revocation hearing, it would be up to the executive director of the commission,” she said. “We had one of those around 2000 when we brought this information to them at the time, but the executive director narrowly interpreted the rules. We’ve been there and done that trying to get this site preserved.”

Mayor Debbie Cook called the handling of remains a “cultural crime,” but said it was to be expected in a system with few consequences.

From the Coastal Commission’s standpoint, its requirements have been followed, District Manager Teresa Henry said. Some early archaeology permits granted to land owners in the 1980s gave developers leeway to dig up all remains and bury them elsewhere on the site. There might have been more restrictions if those permits were granted today, but there wasn’t new information to overturn those permits when the commission met to approve the development in 2005, she said.

Still, the Land Trust isn’t the only group upset with the handling of the bones.

“I don’t care what the developers or what the city government say, it’s a major discovery,” said Anthony Morales, tribal chair of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians. His group is one of two who recognize the bones as their ancestors.

Half of those remains have been reinterred, while the rest are yet to be dealt with, said Dave Singleton, a program analyst for the California Native American Heritage Commission.

Morales asked why the area couldn’t remain in its natural state.

“The destruction of a village and of our cemeteries is desecration and it’s an atrocity,” he said. “Would you want your ancestors, your grandparents dug up?”

Horgan called it a lesson to future generations.

“At some time in the future, we will look back and wonder really what our history is in this region,” she said. “But it’s important that everybody know at some point we had an opportunity to preserve the site, but we didn’t save it.”

LEGAL ISSUES:

Who should have told what to whom?

One-hundred and seventy-four sets of ancient remains have been reported found on a section of the Bolsa Chica Mesa where the Brightwater housing development is being built.

Officials with the Native American Heritage Commission said they should have been told as remains were discovered, not late last year when they received a summary report from the archaeologist. Calls to developer Hearthside Homes have not been returned.

Anyone who discovers human remains has an obligation to tell the county coroner or medical examiner, said Dave Singleton, a program analyst for the California Native American Heritage Commission.

“That’s under California Health and Safety code,” he said. “The coroner’s then required to report to the Native American Heritage Commission.”

Activists from the Bolsa Chica Land Trust made a public records request for all records of bones found in the excavation area; the coroner produced only eight.

But Supervising Deputy Coroner Cullen Ellingburgh said the office was aware of excavations there and didn’t need each set reported separately because it was an ongoing project.

Bolsa Chica Land Trust Executive Director Flossie Horgan still called it a cover-up, saying the public deserved to know about those finds when they happened, not months or years later.

She said she wished the information had been available when the California Coastal Commission was deciding on requirements to develop the property.