Coastal Commission: Reef must go

The California Coastal Commission on Tuesday told the Marine Forests

Society to take apart the 12-year-old artificial underwater habitat it

maintains in the ocean off Balboa Pier, the society’s director said.

The commission issued a cease-and-desist order against the group, giving

it six months to remove the structure made of tires, plastic jugs and PVC

pipe that it has maintained on the ocean floor since 1988.

If the group does not comply, said director Rodolphe Streichenberger, it

could potentially face fines of $6,000 per day.

But Streichenberger said the group will not give up the habitat, which is

used to cultivate kelp and mussels. Instead, he is planning to challenge

the commission’s decision in the courts.

Ronald Zumbrun, attorney for the Marine Forests Society, said the group

will seek to contest the cease-and-desist order “within the next several

weeks.”

Additionally, Zumbrun said, the society will press forward with a lawsuit

against the commission, charging among other things that its

institutional structure is unconstitutional.

Coastal Commission officials, who were meeting in Santa Rosa Wednesday,

could not be reached for comment.

Lisa Trankley, a deputy attorney general who has represented the

commission on the case, has said commissioners are worried about

potential safety and health problems connected with the undersea

structure.

Streichenberger, an outspoken critic of the commission, called its

charges “baloney.”

If the Marine Forests Society were to comply with the

cease-and-desist order, it would be required to obtain a permit to take

apart its own structure, as indicated by Coastal Commission documents.

Zumbrun said it is possible that it might also be necessary to prepare an

environmental impact report before the disassembly could take place.

UNDERSEA NIGHTMARE?Do you agree with the Coastal Commission’s

decision to make the Marine Forests Society remove its artificial reef

from waters off Balboa Pier? Call our Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086

or e-mail your comments to o7 [email protected] . Please tell us

your name and hometown, and include a phone number (for verification

purposes only).

REFER: See today’s editorial on Page A23