BREAKING NEWS

Steve Hoye: 310-455-0242;

    FEBRUARY 14, 2012, Malibu, CA --Wetlands activists have filed an appeal in San Francisco Superior Court hoping to overturn a court decision allowing the bulldozing of Malibu Lagoon, a decision many believe does not comply with state law.

    While an initial Superior Court ruling last Spring granted a stay of the construction project, environmental advocates were disappointed with the more recent ruling that essentially reversed that stand.  In his initial opinion, Judge Earnest Goldsmith stated that the bulldozing project would be harmful to the birds, fish, dragonflies, rabbits and other species residing in the lagoon.

    James Birkelund, the lead public interest lawyer for the case, who is known for his work to protect San Onofre State Park from a damaging toll road, explained the basis of the appeal:

    “The trial court refused to enforce the Coastal Act’s strict protections of our wetlands. The project’s undeniable massive dredging will kill existing wildlife and demolish a treasured beach trail.  Yet these harms can be avoided. Wetlands experts have identified alternatives that not only protect the existing lagoon but also meet other project goals. The Coastal Act and common sense demand that we fully consider these less-damaging options.”

    The three environmental and public interest groups, Wetlands Defense Fund, Access for All and CLEAN (Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network), the three environmental and public interest groups filed an initial legal challenge against the California Coastal Commission in December, 2010, for permitting a highly engineered and mechanized overhaul of Malibu Lagoon.

    Steve Hoye, Executive Director of Access for All, also commented on the project, as he explained his organization’s strong commitment to compel the Coastal Commission to comply with the law:

    “This phony ‘restoration’ proposal would destroy a popular public accessway to one of California’s great beaches and create an access hardship for disabled people, older folks and children trying to get there, That’s just unacceptable.” said Hoye.

    The Malibu Lagoon project is a grading and re-engineering proposal that would be uniquely destructive and devastating to the lagoon’s existing wetlands, habitat, and public access. The project is antithetical in numerous respects to the law and underlying spirit of the California Coastal Act and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Courts still retain the power to enforce the Coastal Act and CEQA and to stop the project.

    Wetlands Defense Fund’s Marcia Hanscom, one of the leaders of the Save Malibu Lagoon campaign, said she remains confident that the project will be stopped and re-thought. She said that the project is “based on old science and decades-old reports that have     now been refuted.”

    “We stopped the bulldozers for an entire year, and we intend to stop them again,” Hanscom

continued.

    Robert “Roy” van de Hoek, science director for Wetlands Defense Fund added, “In this state’s fiscal climate it is especially disheartening that public bond moneys are being used for bulldozing habitat where an endangered fish and other imperiled species thrive. Somehow the State of California veered way off track in what they consider a ‘restoration.’

     Protection of wetlands and rare marsh inhabitants is what is paramount when changes of any kind are made to an ecosystem.

There are no guarantees that endangered and rare species lost in this project will return or rebound.

    Such high-risk experiments are not appropriate in places like Malibu Lagoon.”

    For more information,, call 310-821-9045, and join Save

Malibu Lagoon on Facebook. To donate visit the home page portal at : www.SaveMalibuLagoon.com and click the “donate” button.

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