EDITORIAL

We’ve heard of people getting in trouble with environmental agencies

for dumping or spilling raw sewage into oceans or streams. For attempting

to build commercial marinas in sensitive wetlands. Heck, even for trying

to get their million-dollar boats out from under mounds of built-up silt.

But for trying to create marine habitat?

Hmmm ... now that’s a new one.

Yet such is the plight of lovably eccentric Rodolphe Streichenberger,

the Newport Beach resident who has made it his life’s mission to give the

tiny but important creatures of the sea a home in the ocean -- albeit an

artificial one.

Since 1988 he has been nurturing the little critters in his artificial

reef off the Balboa Pier -- a structure made of things not usually

considered environmental: rubber tires, plastic jugs and pieces of PVC

pipe.

And now, 12 years later, the California Coastal Commission is

considering (has issued) issuing a cease-and-desist order against the

Marine Forests Society, the organization created by Streichenberger to

maintain the artificial reef.

The Coastal Commission is an important aspect of our way of life in

this coastal community -- regulating development, being a watchdog for

habitat protection, overseeing management of the most environmentally

sensitive areas.

But the commission’s crusade against the Marine Forests Society is an

example of how the agency can go too far: they seem to be regulating

simply for the sake of regulating.

There are plenty of cases in which what the commission says or does is

unpopular and plenty of times when the environmental bureaucracy seems

overbearing and unnecessary.

An easy example is the recent squabble over dredging permits in

Newport Harbor. However, in that case, there is an overwhelming

environmental argument for restricting the city’s once-open-ended

dredging permit: the silt is chock full of toxics and potentially

cancer-causing chemicals left over from years of unregulated use, and the

material must be tested before it can be dumped on the bay’s beaches.

But the artificial reef?

Officials admit the worst thing that could happen would be broken

pieces damaging boats or hurting fish. They also worry that the reef

could attract marine life into polluted waters.

Wait a minute. Shouldn’t the polluted ocean waters be more of a

concern to the commission than the reef that may be attracting fish

there?

And, even more amazingly, if Streichenberger wanted to comply with the

Coastal Commission’s “cease and desist order,” he’d have to first apply

to the agency for a permit before tearing the reef down.

Doesn’t that just speak for itself?