Bulldozers halt for endangered fly

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 25, 1999 by CHELSEA J. CARTER

California towns trying to balance development, environmental concerns.

The Associated Press

COLTON, Calif. -- Southern California construction projects worth hundreds of millions are being held up by a fly in the development.

The U.S. government has all but halted development across the sand dunes in the desert east of Los Angeles to protect the tiny Delhi Sands flower-loving fly -- the only fly ever to make the Endangered Species List.

Some people can't believe the fuss being made over a bug.

"People feel like their community is being run by a fly. Where it can develop, when it can develop -- all dictated by a fly," said Ray Bragg, a development official in Fontana, one of several small cities whose plans have been thwarted by the orange-brown insect the size of a straight pin.

The flies' only known breeding grounds are the Delhi Sands dunes stretching from San Bernardino to Riverside to Ontario, about 60 miles from Los Angeles. The fine dunes were created by Santa Ana winds carrying grit from the mountains and dropping it in the desert valley.

The Delhi Sands are the largest remaining sand dune system in the Los Angeles basin. But the few dunes that remain are surrounded by freeways and encroaching development. Most of them are held by private land owners.

Because the fly's habitat is disappearing, its numbers are down to just several thousand. In 1993 it was designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species.

"Any time there's a listed species that's warm and fuzzy and endearing, it's easier for people to rally around it and work together toward a common goal. But this is about more than just God's creatures great and small," said Jeff Newman of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "This is a unique system with unique species."

Afraid the Delhi Sands fly will go the way of the El Segundo fly, which disappeared when its breeding grounds were paved over for a tarmac at the Los Angeles International Airport, the Fish and Wildlife Service has all but halted development on the dunes until it can be determined how many flies there are and how best to protect them.

In Fontana, developers' vision of a $500 million project of single-family homes, shopping centers and strip malls has been dashed. Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Rialto and Hemet have had to delay housing projects, critical in a region absorbing residential overflow from Los Angeles. Colton had hoped to build a manufacturing plant.

About $42 million in bonds will go into default in October because Fontana land owners unable to develop their land are unable to pay taxes.

Colton has $11 million in debt tied up in an idle electrical substation built to supply power to the proposed commercial developments. And the town is in danger of losing $300 million to $500 million in commercial projects because developers are looking elsewhere, Colton town manager Henry Garcia said.

Back in 1995, the discovery of eight flies near the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton cost San Bernardino County $4 million to move the then-proposed hospital several hundred feet.

The government and the communities that want to build are trying to agree on property that could be designated a protected habitat. The cities and county have proposed several sites, including 280 acres in Colton.

Wildlife officials said the process could take up to two years. But county and city officials are desperate to complete it by the end of the year.

"I don't want 20 years from now for my children to ask me where all the animals and insects went," Garcia said. "But I don't want to have to tell the residents that their city lost millions because of a fly. There has to be a middle ground."