EPA Rebukes Ballona Land Distrust

In a letter dated August 28, 2014, U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenthal responded to an inquiry by Congressman Henry Waxman, prompted by paranoid allegations by Ballona Wetlands Land Trust President Walter Lamb, that public funds had been misused by the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission. Lamb had asserted in a July 17, 2014 letter to Waxman that the Commission had spent hundreds of thousands of public dollars from the federal National Estuary Program evaluating the Annenberg Foundation’s proposal for a visitor center and little league field refurbishment at the intersection of the Marina Freeway and Culver Blvd.

Lamb’s organization, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, has long been a thorn in the side of the Commission. The Bay Foundation, the non-profit partner of the Commission, has been performing scientific studies to provide evaluations of the existing conditions of the Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project (http://ballonarestoration.org/). The Project, which is led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, may create, restore or enhance tidal wetlands and uplands on the state-owned Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve lands, including establishing public access. Over 2.5 million yards of fill dirt from Marina Del Rey construction needs to be dug out of Reserve lands to restore them to a condition similar to other restorations completed across California. Ballona Wetlands Land Trust and other people oppose a comprehensive Ballona restoration, which will require large scale excavation and grading (aka, bulldozers, scrapers and excavators). The photo shows an artist’s conception of the maximum tidal alternative.

What most irks Lamb and his allies is the Annenberg Foundation’s proposal to build a $50 million community center as part of the restoration project on land adjacent to the Culver-Marina Little League fields where the 90 freeway, Culver Blvd. and Lincoln Blvd. intersect. The severely degraded land is part of the Reserve, but is filled to an elevation of 25 feet and is too distant from the ocean to be practically restored to tidal wetland. Annenberg would refurbish the ball fields for the Little League and share a parking lot for the community center (I refer to this as a community center, because that’s really what it is). Even more sinister, Annenberg proposes to use a portion of the facility for domestic animal rehabilitation, and this has Lamb et al. spitting tooth enamel. Land Trust has sued Cal Fish and Wildlife, alleging secret back room deals with Annenberg. 

Blumenthal wrote to Waxman that the Commission is in good standing, meets their requirements of National Estuary Program funding, and does not use those funds for any promotion of the Annenberg element, nor to promote any of the restoration project alternatives currently being analyzed.

The draft Environmental Impact Report for the Ballona Restoration Project should be released for public review and comment early next year (God willing).

Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!