California Coastal Commission

The state's top environmental officer Tuesday asked federal officials for more time to decide if California should back an effort to make Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory a Superfund cleanup site. Linda S. Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said the state might be better positioned to make Boeing more quickly remove the rocket fuel and nuclear test contamination that was left at the site near Chatsworth.

Backing away from his neutral stance, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday urged the California Coastal Commission to approve a controversial tollway in Orange County that would pass through San Onofre State Beach, one of California's most popular parks. "I have concluded that this project is essential to protect our environment and the quality of life for everyone in California," Schwarzenegger said in a letter to Patrick Kruer, chairman of the Coastal Commission.

The California Coastal Commission argued in federal court Tuesday that President Bush violated the U.S. Constitution by trying to overturn a court order that restricted the Navy's use of a type of sonar linked to the deaths of marine mammals. The commission's attorneys said Bush's move to exempt the Navy sonar training exercises in Southern California waters from federal law violated the Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine.

In one of the region's great environmental showdowns, the California Coastal Commission is set to decide Wednesday whether to approve a controversial toll road through San Onofre State Beach -- a popular park filled with endangered species, old Indian sites and famous surf spots.

The agency pushing for a toll road through San Onofre State Beach apparently didn't like being jeered by opponents during the public hearing at which the state Coastal Commission rejected its project. In an appeal to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the agency plainly pointed out that it doesn't want another round of boos and hisses by a boisterous public.

More than two dozen members of California's congressional delegation have sent a letter urging the secretary of Commerce to uphold the state Coastal Commission's veto of a controversial toll road proposal in southern Orange County. The letter, sent this week from Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) and signed by other members of Congress, also urged Commerce Secretary Carlos M.

Andrew Willis walked for an hour along the rugged Corona del Mar coast, his path punctuated by intimate coves and tide pools. "There were no footprints other than mine," he recalled. Someone with a small bulldozer had been moving dirt down the side of a bluff 30 feet above, a neighborhood tipster reported. It could be illegal. And it was Willis' job, and only his, to investigate.

Two years ago, Sid Waterman gazed up with satisfaction at this town's first Independence Day fireworks. He knew how hard he and a few other citizens had worked to bring such a display of civic pride to this isolated Mendocino County coastal community. "Every time the crowd roared," said the racing-car parts manufacturer, "my chest puffed up with pride."

Since the recent fires in Malibu, city officials have fought to ban overnight camping in certain hilly canyons above the city out of a fear that the visitors could bring greater fire danger to the area, among other problems.

On one side of sea grass-tufted dunes at Lawson's Landing, the mouth of Tomales Bay opens toward sparkling waves, rocky outcroppings and, in the distance, the brown bluffs of Bodega Head. On the other lies a hodgepodge of more than 200 weather-beaten trailer homes along with a boathouse, a snack bar and sheds. Nearby sprawls a 1,000-vehicle campground dotted with picnic tables, fire rings and portable toilets -- all amid coastal wetlands at the base of towering dune formations.