The Loma Prietan
October 2000
Airport is Kept Out of Bay Restoration Deal–-for Now
by Dale F. Mead
Will San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown steal a big potential victory for the Bay wetlands by using it as an excuse to damage the Bay at San Francisco International Airport? Or worse, kill it altogether by tying a now-or-never opportunity to a controversy that will take years--or never--to resolve?
That question has turned into a pitched political showdown in Sacramento between perhaps the most influential California politician of the last half-century and a coalition of the area’s most prestigious environmental groups.
At stake is an historic plan to significantly improve the bay by turning South Bay salt ponds back into the wildlife-supporting wetlands they once were. But if the mayor succeeds in barging in, the effort to reverse a century of degradation and return part of the bay to its pre-human inhabitants would be neutralized. The result would be a no-gain swap of improvements in one area for damage in another--or worse, the death of the salt ponds deal through interminable delays.
A coalition of environmental groups--primarily Sierra Club California, the Loma Prieta and Bay Chapters of Sierra Club, the Save the San Francisco Bay Association and the National Audubon Society, --spent the summer forestalling Brown’s attempt to get environmental requirements for the project eased through a bill by long-time state Sen. John Burton. The group also rallied support in a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Carole Migden to remove an explicit tie between state purchase of the property and SFO providing restoration funds.
Nonetheless, it’s still quite possible SFO can "buy in" to the project in the future. Letting the Airport Commission provide the cash could mire the sale in an environmental approval process expected to take years, and probably would drive Cargill to find other buyers.
"The language of the bill says the Wildlife Conservation Board can acquire the land if restoration funds are available. We wanted that out," explained Sierra Club State Legislative Director, Bill Allayaud, since such land purchase authorizations seldom require restoration funding as a condition. "That’s a potential tie-in for SFO."
But the bay fill opponents must live with it. For now, Migden’s bill authorizing $30 million toward purchase of the salt ponds likely has become law–it passed in the Assembly and Senate, and Gov. Gray Davis was expected to sign it by October.
State and federal officials agree that Cargill Salt Division’s proposed sale of 30 square miles of salt ponds to the state offers a rare opportunity to partially reverse more than a century of filling and taming of the bay. It is now 60 percent of its size 100 years ago and surrounded by urban humanity in place of teeming wildlife.
The deal awaits appraisals of the land by both Cargill and the Wildlife Conservation Board, agreement on the price, and commitment of funds to meet it. A ballpark figure for the acreage is $300 million. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is already at work seeking $150 million in federal restoration funds by next year. Davis reportedly balked at the proposed $150 million state funding, but supported the $30 million expenditure in Migden’s bill.
Objections by an environmentally sensitive public put the mayor’s hand-picked commission on notice that it would have to find a way to look environmentally responsible. The airport saw the challenge of finding restoration funds as its opportunity to put on an environmental white hat.
In August, Brown went to Sacramento to testify on behalf of legislation introduced by proponents Burton and Migden. As initially written, Burton’s bill would have exempted the airport from doing extensive environmental studies, instead passing the responsibility on to state and federal agencies. Migden’s bill would have provided state funds only if the salt pond restorations constituted the airport’s mitigation--long before a runway expansion plan had been selected, let alone adequate mitigation determined.
Burton’s bill immediately aroused an outcry that forced legislators to water it down. It no longer changes current legal requirements, which means it won’t short-circuit the environmental approval process as Burton had intended.
It also makes any connection with the salt pond purchase potentially fatal to the deal. Cargill spokeswoman Lori Johnson confirmed as much Aug. 12 in the San Jose Mercury News when she said, "There’s no company that could agree to a sale with no endpoint in sight." Faced with indefinite delays in monies to buy, the corporation likely would sell the vast acreage to private parties instead.
The redrafting of Burton’s and Migden’s bills reflected the all-out efforts of environmental leaders including the chapter’s own Richard Zimmerman and the Sierra Club’s State Legislative Director in Sacramento, Bill Allayaud, as well as Bay Chapter activist Jane Seleznow, Save the Bay executive director David Lewis, and National Audubon Society baylands program director Debbie Drake. But given Brown’s cunning and clout, the job is far from over. Last month Zimmerman and Lewis sent a letter to the Regional Airport Planning Committee (RAPC) of the Association of Bay Area Governments, urging rejection of its staff’s Regional Airport System Plan as "inadequate and misleading" due to glaring deficiencies and inconsistencies (reported in the September Loma Prietan).
Although relieved that SFO did not prevail in Sacramento during the summer, the activists know the fight is far from over. They need to pressure SFO to take a serious look at viable alternatives before selecting its final plan. Once the Airport Commission describes the project, they will scrutinize it carefully. Meantime, Allayaud and the Loma Prieta Chapter Director, Dan Kalb, pledge to remain on the alert.
"Here in Sacramento, we will be on guard for any other legislation intended to circumvent or streamline the environmental regulations," Allayaud added.
If you would like to help with the Chapter’s campaign to stop SFO expansion and protect San Francisco Bay, call (650) 390-8411 or e-mail loma.prieta.director@sierraclub.org. If you have questions, please contact Richard Zimmersman at windrider@protectourbay.com.