Open Space District intent is clear: Tidal marsh will be restored Open Space District intent is clear: Tidal marsh will be restored (September 07, 2001)

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District recently discovered that the United States Navy was pursuing a partial cleanup of a toxic Superfund site, which includes the Open Space District's Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area. Despite the District's extensive efforts, both currently and over the last 20 years, to return these wetlands to a tidal marsh to the furthest extent possible, the Mountain View Voice recently denigrated these efforts. As General Manager, I would like to agree with the Voices' editorial title: "Cooperation, not indignation, will lead to a better cleanup plan" (8/24/01); cooperation from our local media, will, indeed, best inform our community members and lead to a better cleanup plan.

In an effort to restore the 54-acre Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area to its original health, including tidal flow, the District proposed to the Navy as early as 1979 a bayland restoration plan that included changing the channel of Stevens Creek to increase the tidal plane and reintroduce tidal action to the Study Area. In order to increase public awareness of the diversity and productivity of the bay marshland ecosystems, the Open Space District has also sought to provide low-intensity recreational access to the Study Area.

To provide greater public access to this area, a joint project was undertaken by the District and Mountain View to build a pedestrian bridge across Stevens Creek connecting to Mountain View Shoreline, and has spent the better part of two decades actively working in conjunction with other local agencies to forge trail access across the north end of Moffett Field. The District worked with many of these same agencies to ensure that long-term local plans included tidal-restoration opportunities.

In 1994, the District participated in and was ultimately successful in incorporating into NASA's Comprehensive Land Use Plan the identification of this wetland area as an area to be preserved. The District's tidal restoration and trial plans for the area were made known to all local and federal agencies and, after years of efforts, the Bay Trial plans were included in the plan. In addition, the District worked cooperatively with the Santa Clara Valley Water District and many local jurisdictions on an extensive "Plan of Opportunities," which outlined use and management goals for the Shoreline Nature Study Area, and focused on how to return the area to tidal flow. The Water District incorporated these concepts into its levee improvement project, which extended from Highway 101 to the southwest corner of the Nature Study Area.

The District has sent a dedicated representative to meet with all interested parties and land owners over the past 20 years to complete the Bay Trail from the Sunnyvale Baylands to Mountain View's Shoreline Park, which was to cross properties of NASA, the Navy, and Lockheed. It was through these meetings that the District finally obtained an agreement from NASA to build a trail segment along the southern and eastern boundary of the Nature Study Area, as the first segment of the complete Bay Trail alignment. The District was confident that it could secure grant funding to build the trail and begin work on restoration projects. However, the District met a dead end in its trail access efforts due to NASA's insistence that any adjoining easement be revocable at any time. As a result, no granting agency would provide funds under such circumstances.

Although the District's exclusion from the Navy's recent cleanup process was disappointing, the District is appreciative that it was notified of the cleanup plan in time to provide additional input to ensure that the best possible cleanup is obtained. A "95 percent cleanup" of certain toxins, as has been proposed by the Navy, would preclude the Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area from being returned to tidal flow, as the remaining contaminated water would not be permitted to flow into the bay. The District met last week with the Nave and NASA's representatives, and successfully sought an extension of time for input. The Navy has promised that the cleanup plan would not be finalized until they had District "buy in." The District fully intends to return the Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area to tidal flow, which would require a full cleanup of the toxic contaminants at "Site 25." L. Craig Britton, general manager of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, contributed this guest opinion.