Ocean commotion

Alex Coolman

Rodolphe Streichenberger does not give up easily.

The man who installed an artificial marine habitat in the water off

Balboa Pier in 1988 lost a legal battle earlier this week in his effort

to save the structure from being removed.

But a California Superior Court judge’s decision Wednesday, which allows

the California Coastal Commission to order Streichenberger to dismantle

the structure, has hardly persuaded the Newport Beach resident into

thinking he has been defeated.

The only thing it’s really made him certain about, the 71-year-old French

economist said, is that the commission is trying to destroy his project.

“When a bureaucracy wants to kill [a proposal], they have many tricks,”

Streichenberger said, sitting in the living room of his Big Canyon home.

Streichenberger’s underwater environment, which the Coastal Commission

simply calls a “reef,” sits under water about 300 yards from shore near

the Balboa Pier.

It is constructed of about 1,500 tires, 2,000 plastic jugs, pieces of PVC

pipe and other materials intended to provide a growing environment for

marine organisms.

Streichenberger believes the underwater structure, which is a home to

kelp, mussels and other marine creatures, can be a model for similar

structures throughout California and other coastal areas.

For underdeveloped countries, he said, his inexpensive method of farming

sea life could be a source of easily renewable nutrition.

But the Coastal Commission isn’t particularly concerned about the

abstract applications of the project in a distant country. It has mainly

been concerned with the question of what, exactly, all those tires and

jugs are doing off the coast of Newport Beach -- with no permit.

The commission initially denied Streichenberger’s after-the-fact request

for a permit in April 1997. Legal wrangling has prevented further action

since then, but the commission is no more convinced of the merits of

Streichenberger’s plans than it was three years ago.

“There were concerns about the location of the reef,” said Lisa Trankley,

the deputy attorney general who represented the commission in the most

recent court battles. “It’s located near a sewage outfall and there was

concern that the fish that come around would become contaminated.”

Trankley also cited the possibility that the “structure was not well

enough anchored to the sea floor.

“Some [pieces of the structure] have broken free and pose a danger to

fish and to boats,” she said.

Streichenberger dismisses these claims as inaccurate and as appeals to

“emotion” rather than scientific evidence.

“Nobody has seen debris,” from the structure, he said. “In 12 years, no

complaints about debris. If a device does not work well, we ourselves

take it out.”

A Coastal Commission order to cease and desist with the project could

come as soon as May, Trankley said.

But Streichenberger says he isn’t inclined to worry much about that,

either. He’ll go back to court before he considers disassembling his

undersea dream.

“We spend our money and time [fighting] this harassment,” he said. “We

are not here to do this job. We are here to plant the sea.”