The planned re-saturation of a newly restored section of the Bolsa Chica wetlands should be delayed as much as eight months to avoid risking an oil spill, an oil company said in a letter to state and federal land managers. The Aug. 24 filling of the 200-acre basin, representatives of Aera Energy LLC wrote, should be delayed long enough for the company to assess the danger.

State water quality officials have already approved a completed oil-risk study. Aeras proposal did not gogo over well. "If they insist we delay," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project manager Jack Fancher said, "we insist that there s a cost associated with that, and well have to work that out." The habitat restoration project, in an area that includes oil wells, has already cost $120 million, he said.
(Los Angeles Times, 17/08/2006)