Groups Challenge Restoration Plan For Ballona Wetlands

VENICE, CA — A group dedicated to protecting the Ballona Wetlands is among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging millions of dollars in public funds have been misused for what they claim is a "deceptive" plan to bulldoze the ecological reserve under the guise of being a restoration effort.

Defend Ballona Wetlands, the Animal Protection, Rescue League Inc. and three individuals filed the suit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the California State Coastal Conservancy and the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation. The litigation focuses on Proposition 12, a 2000 voter-approved measure that authorized a $2.1 billion bond for various land and water quality programs and includes a paragraph stating that the funds are to be used to "protect, acquire and restore" the Ballona Wetlands.

The bulldozing plan, if carried out, would negatively affect thousands of wild animals and plants on the 640 acres of wetlands and would "wreak havoc" on the communities of Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, Venice, Del Rey and Westchester, as well as Los Angeles International Airport, for nine years at a cost of $270 million, the suit alleges.

The suit seeks a court order preventing further spending of Prop 12 funds set aside for the Ballona Wetlands for anything other than to acquire, protect and restore the area. The plaintiffs also want an accounting of funds.

Patch reached out to a representative for the Coastal Conservancy but they did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve is one of the last significant estuarine and freshwater wetland landscapes in coastal Los Angeles County. The plaintiffs allege there is a "series of murky connections" between the Southern California Gas Co. storage facility that lies under the wetlands, the State Coastal Conservancy, The Bay Foundation and high-profile groups supporting what the plaintiffs contend is a "deceptive" project.

"We aim to hold (Executive Officer) Sam Schuchat and the Coastal Conservancy he leads accountable," said plaintiffs' attorney Bryan Pease. "The public expects when we vote on a bond measure (that) the funds will be spent as the language of the initiative declares."

The lawsuit alleges there exists a "counterfeit restoration" that is actually aimed at helping SoCalGas in "fixing old and adding new infrastructure."

Elected officials, fearful of another explosion like the one that occurred at Aliso Canyon, have called for shutting down the facility under the Ballona Wetlands, the suit states.

"Whether it's collusion or a mysterious set of coincidences, there are too many connections between front-groups funded by the state Coastal Conservancy, the dangerous gas storage facility under the wetlands and engineering contractors receiving millions of dollars to plan a project that would harm wildlife and their habitat," said Molly Basler, a climate activist and a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Robert Jan "Roy" van de Hoek, a wetlands scientist and wildlife biologist, said the lawsuit quotes two restoration and historical ecology experts who opined that current science proves the project pushed by The Bay Foundation is not a restoration.

Lisa Karlan, a co-founder of the community association DefendBallonaWetlands.org, said it is important to ensure no more funds are misspent as they allegedly have been in the past.

"We want a forensic audit of these funds," she said. "We want the misspent money returned and no more public money expended on this boondoggle. We hope Gov. (Gavin) Newsom is listening."

In June, Defend Ballona Wetlands planned a virtual town hall meeting joined by community members and leaders calling on the end of destruction at the wetlands.

Marc Saltzberg, Executive Board Member of the West LA Democratic Club, said then that it is time to take a stand on the underground gas storage in Playa del Rey.

"Really, the destruction of the Ballona Wetlands, that was planned as a massive construction project that was disguised as a restoration," Saltzberg said. "Our club has been meeting in Venice not so far from the wetlands, so of course, when we heard about the plans to bulldoze Ballona, we were shocked. We have a long history of activism regarding the wetlands."

As time has passed, the group has continued to have one question: What is the link between the gas storage facility under the wetlands and the bulldozing of the wetlands, the destruction?

"We finally figured out some of the answers to those questions," Saltzberg said. "As a result of that, we are now united behind the idea that that gas storage needs to go away. It needs to be decommissioned."

The wetlands are home to a many endangered and threatened wildlife species, including owls, hawks, sparrows, butterflies, lizards, salamanders and mice.

Dorothy Reik, President of the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains, has been working for years to defend wetlands along the coast. Reik described what happened at Malibu Lagoon, the Topanga Lagoon and the destruction of local wildlife and wetlands.

"I see this as kind of the way they gentrify neighborhoods, they want to gentrify to wild lands," Reik said. "They claim they want to keep animals, butterflies and bugs, but they want the animals, plants, butterflies and bugs that they want there."

"Just like in a neighborhood," Reik. "Wetlands, they don't smell good. Well, that's nature. Nature doesn't always smell good. Some parts of nature are more beautiful than others. But the people whose houses look down on the wetlands, they want to see something more like what they're used to, like what's planted around an apartment building."

- City News Service and Patch Editor Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

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