A study on an area considered by many as a key habitat buffer of the Los Cerritos Wetlands has sparked a whirlwind of debate in environmentalist circles this week, because it declares that the site is not wetlands .
The controversial report was conducted for property owner Sean Hitchcock, who was sharply criticized for grading the buffer area near Loynes Drive and Studebaker Road in late March.
The study could be reviewed by the Long Beach Planning Commission in mid-August or early September, according to Development Services Director Craig Beck.
There will be fireworks.
Environmentalists will be disputing a report that studied an area uprooted and buried under half a foot of dirt, destroying a site they consider to be ecologically sensitive.
Tom Marchese, a community activist and board member of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, said that such delineation studies generally require one or two years of review, following a wet winter.
The review was conducted shortly after Hitchcock graded the area, and then capped the site with several feet of dirt - the latter at the direction of state agencies concerned about leaking methane gas.
Ty Garrison, senior biologist for the Pasadena-based SWCA Environmental Consultants, ruled in his 13-page report that site has been mainly a landfill.
"At present, the ground elevation of the site is approximately 16 to 20 feet above the natural marsh that was present at the location until the 1940s," he noted in the study.
Click here to download the report: study.pdf
Joe Segura, a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, has covered Gotham City, er Long Beach, for 34 years. During his very, very long -- endless -- tenure, he's covered almost every beat, and he was the main writer for BeachWeek, which focused on life and lifestyles of the shoreline communities from downtown Long Beach to the Huntington Beach pier.
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