Cargill, California set $100 mln SF Bay wetlands deal
Date: 30-May-02
Country: USA
Author: Andrew Quinn
The project, which aims to transform 16,500 acres (6,700 hectares) of Cargill's commercial salt ponds back into tidal marshland, marks a victory for environmental groups which have campaigned for years to create a public wildlife refuge for birds, fish and other species which once thrived in the San Francisco Bay.
"Today we're taking the first step to reverse the course of history. Together we'll restore an extraordinary but endangered natural resource," California Gov. Gray Davis said at a ceremony announcing the deal.
Restoring the ponds, which have been used to harvest salt since the 1850s and cover an area roughly the size of Manhattan, will take decades. The project will rank among the largest wetlands recovery efforts ever mounted in the United States, rivaled only by similar deals to reclaim parts of the Florida Everglades and Chesapeake Bay.
Under an agreement brokered by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Minneapolis-based Cargill has agreed to sell the ponds for a total of $100 million. Most of the money will come from the state, but significant portions will also be paid by the federal government as well as local philanthropic foundations.
Cargill, which will retain some 11,000 acres (4,450 hectares) of local salt production facilities, has been under pressure to scale back salt production in San Francisco Bay, a marine estuary that has lost some 80 percent of its tidal marshes to diking, filling and development.
The ponds, familiar to visitors arriving by air at San Francisco International Airport as a series of reddish reservoirs strung along the southern rim of San Francisco Bay, have been targeted by environmental groups as a major impediment toward restoring the region as a viable habitat for native fish and wildlife.
EARLIER OFFER TOO PRICEY
While privately held Cargill did offer to sell much of its salt production facilities two years ago, the $300 million price tag eventually scuttled the deal.
Feinstein, who helped to negotiate government purchase deals for ancient redwood forests in northern California and pushed for new national parks in southern California deserts, got involved and put together the public-private partnership which sealed the deal Wednesday.
"It is a very, very special day," Feinstein, a California Democrat, said. "This is win-win for the people of the San Francisco Bay area, and win-win I think for a way to solve large conservation and resource restoration areas in the future."
While the deal secures much of Cargill's salt production ponds in the San Francisco Bay as well as a further 1,400 acres (560 hectares) of salt ponds along the Napa River, it does not establish who will pay for the restoration work itself - which estimates say could cost well more than $400 million.
Nevertheless, environmental groups hailed the agreement as the first step toward restoring San Francisco Bay.
"This acquisition sets the stage for the largest tidal wetlands restoration on the U.S. Pacific Coast," said National Audubon Society President John Flicker. "San Francisco Bay is a site of international significance. Restoration of these ponds is critical to ensuring long-term health of the bay."