Hearthside breaks silence

Responding for the first time to allegations that Hearthside Homes mishandled the reporting of Native American remains found on the Brightwater housing development, a top executive in the company insisted this week that the company has been following every applicable law and agreement.

Hearthside Senior Vice President Ed Mountford’s comments came after revelations that Hearthside has more than 100,000 ancient Native American artifacts from nearly 30 years of excavations on the Bolsa Chica mesa, according to a Nov. 5 memo from its archaeologist Nancy Wiley. The leaked memo was provided to the media by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, a group that seeks to preserve open space in the area.

Critics haven’t brought up anything regulatory agencies don’t know about, Mountford said. He confirmed much of the information in the memo but wouldn’t comment on some issues, most of which he said were confidential parts of agreements with local Native American tribes.

“It’s not a situation,” he said. “We have told the Native Americans. They’ve asked us to keep things confidential. It’s really between us and them and the archaeologists. That’s what we’ve done. I’ve got no qualms about that. We’ve done our job.”

As of Nov. 5, there were 87 “human bone concentrations” left to be reburied, according to the memo. All would be reburied after being analyzed by a consultant and shown to the county coroner en masse, according to the document. About 5,800 artifacts were found on two historical sites that overlap the Brightwater property as workers began moving earth, according to the memo.

Land Trust Executive Director Flossie Horgan wouldn’t discuss who leaked the memo. But she called it further evidence the site should have been left alone.

“I think that the surfacing of this memo just clarifies and reinforces what we’ve all thought for so long,” Horgan said. “This site on the Bolsa Chica mesa has such historical significance, and this has all surfaced just in 2008. We have said for 15 years that this site is of significance.”

Mountford called the previous excavations an exhaustive process with careful efforts to preserve what was found.

“We actually did what’s called controlled grading,” he said. “This is a technique we’ve used out there for many years where we just scrape off an inch at a time of dirt. Monitors are standing by there, walking back and forth to point out artifacts. We find those spots and we excavate.”

There’s been a plan for decades, Mountford said. There’s “no new news” on the issue, he said. Ultimately, those artifacts will either be buried with remains or given to the county. When everything is finished, the developer will distribute reports on the findings to the scientific community, he said. Some of the details are still being negotiated with the Gabrieleno-Tongva and Juaneño groups that are likely descendants of those who lived on the mesa, but the process is according to the rules, he said.

“We have found human remains out there,” he said. “That’s no secret. When we got our permit to build Brightwater, the Coastal Commission conditioned us on their permit to have a mitigation plan in place. We all knew that we would find more remains out there. We put together a mitigation plan, and we have held to that mitigation plan and we’re in compliance with all of our permits, and we’re in compliance with state law.”

But Horgan said her group would meet with Coastal Commission staff to “see what remedies there are, if any, for this.”