PCB discovery could endanger Calif. marsh swap
Posted on November 18th, 2009
Greenwire: Elevated levels of carcinogenic PCBs could upend a controversial deal that seeks to help restore a degraded salt marsh in Southern California.
Long Beach has been prepared to swap a downtown service yard for nearly 38 acres of wetland, meant to help protect the remnants of a salt marsh at the mouth of the San Gabriel River. Earlier this year, however, an informant tipped off U.S. EPA that the Los Cerritos Wetlands had been the site of a toxic spill in the 1950s.
Soil testing of the wetlands found PCB levels as high as 21 parts per million — high enough to pose a threat to the ecosystem, said Robert Wise, an EPA spokesman.
“These numbers would pose an extremely low threat to humans,” he said. “It’s an ecological threat. The wetlands are home to three federally endangered species.”
City staff have recommended that the land swap not go forward until EPA details its plans for the wetland. It is troublesome that the area was not tested earlier, according to Mel Nutter, an attorney representing the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.
“The city really doesn’t know what it will be getting if this trade goes forward,” he said, “or what the property is worth, or whether a state agency or wetlands authority is ever going to be in a position to actually acquire this property from the city” (Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17). – PV