Ballona Wetlands: Lookout Slough Project Shows The Way

The California Department of Water Resources held a ceremony on September 18th to celebrate completing the Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration Project.

Above: People gathered to watch the ocean’s tidewaters enter the restored Lookout Slough wetlands after a century of isolation

At 3,400-acres, Lookout Slough is the largest tidal wetland restoration project to date in the Sacramento-San Francisco Bay Delta. After breaking ground in June 2022, construction for the project included building over 3-miles of a 25-foot-tall levee, which provides flood protection with allowances for future sea level rise. Bulldozers also excavated 26 miles of open tidal channels, and restored native habitat through grading, fill placement, and natural revegetation. This method is similar to what California has proposed for the Ballona Wetlands.

Above: A kayaker floats into the restored Lookout wetlands through the new tidal inlet

The Lookout Slough Project was paid for with $119 million of state funds. Meanwhile, the Ballona Wetlands restoration, only one fifth the acreage of Lookout, remains mired in delays caused by multiple activist lawsuits.

Anti-bulldozer activists opposing the Ballona Wetlands Project use the proposed excavation of 3 million cubic yards of fill dirt as their rallying cry. The fill dirt was dumped south of Fiji Way in the 1950s as part of Marina Del Rey’s construction.

The Lookout project excavated over 5.2 million cubic yards of fill dirt to create tidal channels and remove obsolete flood control levees. Naturally, bulldozers and other heavy equipment made this possible.

Above: The ocean flows in after a century of exclusion. Bulldozers excavated over five million yards of fill dirt to restore the Lookout wetlands

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to publish and respond to comments on a revised Ballona Wetlands Environmental Impact Report in spring 2025. Activist plaintiffs, who narrowly prevailed in court on only two of 26 issues raised in their lawsuit against Fish and Wildlife, are undeterred and may well challenge the revised EIR when it is published next year.

Above: California Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot addressed the gathered onlookers at Lookout Slough

Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!

References:

Delta Projects. Dept of Water Resources. https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Integrated-Science-and-Engineering/Restoration-Mitigation-Compliance/Delta-Projects

Resources Agency. Lookout Slough Restoration Project. https://resources.ca.gov/CNRALegacyFiles/docs/ecorestore/projects/Lookout-Slough-Tidal-Habitat-Restoration-Flood-Improvement.pdf

Ballona Wetlands: When the Winners Are Really the Losers. Marina Del Rey Patch. https://patch.com/california/marinadelrey/ballona-wetlands-when-winners-are-really-losers

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Author’s disclosure of affiliations:

Dr. David W. Kay served on the Board of Directors of the non-profit Friends of Ballona Wetlands from 2007 until 2015, and served as Board President in 2012-13. He presently serves on the Board of Ballona Discovery Park in Playa Vista. Dr. Kay is a staunch advocate for the state of California's plans to restore the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.

From 1984 until 2022, Dr. Kay was employed by Southern California Edison Company, exclusively in the company's environmental services organizations. His many responsibilities included restoration of the 440-acre San Dieguito Wetlands near Del Mar. He retired in 2022 as Senior Manager for Major Project Environmental Management at the company, after 38 years of service.

Dr. Kay earned bachelor and master's degrees in biology and a doctorate in environmental science.

See Dr. Kay’s Patch Community Contributor profile here.