Wetland Project Report Heavily Criticized : Environment: Five agencies say county’s evaluation of Koll home-building plans is insufficient regarding Bolsa Chica restoration, and should be done over.
HUNTINGTON BEACH — A host of governmental agencies have charged that an environmental impact report done by the county on a proposal to build 4,800 homes and restore Bolsa Chica wetlands is so incomplete that it should be redone.
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The criticism was leveled in February by five environmental agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which claimed in a letter to Orange County Planning Director Tom Mathews that the report was “inadequate as a basis for local and state decision-making.â€
Also involved are the state Department of Fish and Game, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Coastal Commission staff. The state and federal fish and game agencies asked that the report be redone.
The Orange County Environmental Management Agency prepared the impact report on a development proposed by Koll Real Estate Group, which has proposed spending $48 million to restore 1,100 acres of wetlands in exchange for the right to build homes.
In general, the county apparently failed to disclose important biological survey information, especially about birds that nest on the property, such as the western snowy plover.
“They claim the biological information exists but they don’t tell you what it is,†said Jack Fancher, a federal fish and wildlife supervisory biologist based in San Diego.
Fancher said that benefits the report claims would result from restoring the wetlands are insufficient. He said the nesting area of the snowy plover, which the federal government has listed as threatened with extinction, might be wiped out.
The exclusion of such significant data from the report, Fancher said, “leaves a whole series of doubts that would make it irresponsible to make a decision based on it.â€
Mathews was out of the office Thursday and unavailable for comment.
According to the Coastal Commission staff, the Koll proposal does not comply with the Coastal Act and does not provide information needed to determine the net benefit of the proposed wetland restoration.
In another letter to the county in February, the National Marine Fisheries Service said the proposed development “is an inappropriate use of this scarce resource.†In addition, agency officials said it is not clear what acreage is being counted as restored wetlands in the county’s environmental report.
Koll’s estimated cost of creating the new wetlands system was not addressed in the impact report and “it is not clear how the estimate was determined,†the fisheries agency wrote.
Meanwhile, the EPA told the county planning director that there are “several less environmentally damaging alternatives than the proposed project analyzed in the EIR . . . which would involve no residential development in the lowlands.†EPA officials say the agency will provide detailed information in its own environmental impact statement for the Bolsa Chica proposal.
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