Government, Cargill conclude negotiations on buying salt ponds

Monday December 16, 2002

By COLLEEN VALLES
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The state and federal government will spend $100 million for 16,500 acres of salt ponds ringing the San Francisco Bay, and Cargill Salt, which is selling the ponds, will manage their desalination.

The government and the company concluded negotiations Monday, setting in motion the largest wetlands restoration project on the West Coast. In May, state and federal officials joined with philanthropic groups to pledge the money to buy the land. The negotiations settle some of the details of the deal, such as Cargill's responsibilities in getting the salt out of the land.

``What sets this apart is while they'll take the title to the property, Cargill will continue to maintain that property at our own expense,'' said Lori Johnson, spokeswoman for Cargill.

Turning some of the land from salt ponds back into marshlands could take about two years for low-salinity ponds, and other places with higher salt levels could take as long as 10 years.

The state is contributing $72 million to the purchase. Foundations including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund are contributing $20 million. The U.S. government is contributing $8 million for the purchase of land that includes salt ponds along the bay and some in Napa County.

Most of the land will become part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and the rest will be part of a state-run wildlife preserve. The new marshes should provide much-needed habitat for species listed as endangered or threatened, including the California clapper rail, the salt marsh harvest mouse, the California least tern and the Western snowy plover.

The company will maintain the ponds until the water in them is clean enough to be released into the bay. That means not just making them less salty, but also cleaning up chemicals such as mercury and petroleum hydrocarbons that have found their way into the land over time.

The company decided to sell because it had too much capacity, and parts of the land it owns has been producing salt since the Gold Rush 150 years ago. It had originally priced the land at $300 million, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was instrumental in getting the deal through, said that was too expensive.

Feinstein said she has long wanted to do something about the ponds.

``I've lived in San Francisco all my life. The salt ponds have bugged me all my life,'' she said. ``I find them not at all attractive and not at all befitting San Francisco Bay.''

The deal had been the subject of debate early on when some were worried that funding for buying them would be linked to approval for new runways at San Francisco International Airport that would extend into the bay. Feinstein said the Cargill deal is in no way connected to airport expansion.

The agreement will be final if the California Wildlife Conservation Board approves it at its February meeting, and escrow is expected to close in March.

The bay used to have 190,000 acres of tidal marsh, but the bulk of that land has been diked, drained, filled or paved. Now, only about 20 percent of the marsh survives.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)