South Coast MLPA Report Now Ready For Public Review

South Coast MLPA Report Now Ready For Public Review

by Dan Bacher

A Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) is now complete for the Marine Protected Area (MPA) proposals covering California's South Coast Study Region under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. A 45-day public comment and review period began on August 18 and will run through October 4, according to a news release from the California Department of Fish and Game.

"The DEIR analyzes the potential environmental impacts of each of the five MPA proposals currently under consideration for this area, which extends from Point Conception to the California border with Mexico," said Thomas Napoli, Department of Fish and Game spokesman. "The MPA proposals are part of the larger Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process, which will create new MPAs along the length of California's coastline."

Napoli said the DEIR was prepared by the California Fish and Game Commission with assistance from the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) as part of the required environmental review process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The process began in June with a public scoping phase, during which DFG solicited comments on the range of issues and type of information that should be considered in the DEIR. These comments helped to shape the content of the DEIR released this week.

MLPA Initiative officials and their corporate "environmental" NGO allies tried to bypass the CEQA process in their fervor to fast-track the MLPA in an attempt to greenwash the abysmal environmental legacy of Governor Schwarzenegger, but massive opposition by fishing and conservation groups forced the state of California to comply with the law and begin an environmental review (http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=z03lb1yk59habr).

Critics of the MLPA Initiative charge that the proposals were rushed through by a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that is dominated by oil industry, marina development, real estate and other corporate interests. In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), chaired the task force that developed the so-called "marine protected areas" on the South Coast. Reheis-Boyd has repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California in spite of economic and environmental devastation caused by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Gusher.

Nothing demonstrates the illegitimacy of the MLPA Initiative than Schwarzenegger's appointment of an oil industry super star like Reheis-Boyd to remove recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and Tribal members, the strongest opponents of offshore drilling, from the water.

These no-take zones will do nothing to protect the ocean from oil drilling, water pollution, aquaculture, wave energy projects or any other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. Many environmental leaders, including John Lewallen, North Coast author and activist, believe that the MLPA Initiative is designed to clear a path for new oil drilling and ocean industrialization along the California coast.

On the North Coast, opposition to the MLPA Initiative, privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, has spurred the creation of the largest political movement since the Redwood Summer of 1990. On July 21, over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Nations, environmentalists, immigrant seafood industry workers, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and human rights advocates peacefully took control of a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg to protest the violation of Tribal fishing and gathering rights and corporate greenwashing that has occurred under the MLPA.

Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) has called on California Resources Secretary Lester Snow to suspend the North Coast MPLA process for six months to “ensure that environmental protection is balanced with traditional access rights.” Snow hasn't responded to his request to date (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/18/18656309.php).

The DEIR is now available to the public on DFGs website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/regulatorydocs_sc.asp. Printed copies of the DEIR and related documents are available at the Santa Maria Public Library, San Luis Obispo City-County Public Library, Ventura County Public Library, County of Los Angeles Public Library, Avalon Library, Santa Monica Public Library, Laguna Beach Branch Library, Oceanside Public Library and at the following DFG field offices:

California Department of Fish and Game
4665 Lampson, Suite C
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
(562) 342-7100

California Department of Fish and Game
1933 Cliff Dr., Suite 9,
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
(805) 568-1231

California Department of Fish and Game
4949 Viewridge Avenue
San Diego, CA 92123
(858) 467-4201

All comments must include the commentors name, address and daytime telephone number. They can be sent via mail to:

MLPA South Coast CEQA
Department of Fish and Game
4665 Lampson, Suite C
Los Alamitos, CA 90720

Comments may also be submitted via e-mail (Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format only) to MLPAComments [at] dfg.ca.gov. E-mailed comments must include MLPA CEQA Comments in the subject line.

All comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Oct. 4 in order to be considered for inclusion in the Final EIR.