With a dramatic gush, state and federal leaders on Thursday opened tidal gates from nine former industrial salt ponds on San Jose's waterfront, allowing millions of gallons of water in them to mix with San Francisco Bay for the first time in 60 years.

The ceremony allows bay waters, complete with their fish, worms, shrimp, plankton and other species, to expand into 2,512 acres of salt ponds -- an area three times the size of New York's Central Park -- that had been blocked off by levees since the 1940s.

It was the second of three such steps in the massive effort to restore 16,500 acres of former Cargill salt ponds ringing the bay to wetlands for fish and wildlife.

The first release, in July, of 10 ponds near Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Alviso, was marred when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service let water with oxygen levels below what their state permits allowed to flow into the bay, potentially harming fish and shrimp.

Thursday, water in the newly opened ponds had been diluted enough by recent rains that it met all standards, said Clyde Morris, manager of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Cargill sold the ponds to the government for $100 million in 2003. Their renaissance ranks as the largest wetlands restoration ever on the West Coast, rivaled only by efforts to restore the Florida Everglades and Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana.

``A hundred and fifty years ago, we had vast marshes full of waterfowl,'' said Janet Hanson, executive director of Alviso's San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. ``The water quality was superb and there were large numbers of shorebirds. With the creation of the salt ponds, we lost a lot of that. Now we're re-creating it.''

Already, the first steps are showing dramatic results.

After officials opened the 10 former ponds in July, the number of birds wintering in South Bay marshes skyrocketed. Cormorants, pintail ducks, white pelicans and other species are flocking to the new habitat to eat the food that has now spread to the ponds.

``The response from wildlife been far more than we expected,'' Morris said. ``We've seen the numbers of shorebirds and waterfowl in some places double.''

At Thursday morning's release, California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman turned an orange metal wheel on pond A16 off Zanker Road in Alviso, allowing water to rush into Artesian Slough, which empties into the bay. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had been scheduled to attend, canceled.

Long-term plans are being drawn up for all 16,500 acres -- including where to allow public access, which ponds to leave salty for some birds that prefer those, and how to shore up levees for flood control.

``We've worked for this since 1966,'' said Florence LaRiviere, co-founder of Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, in Palo Alto.

``What could be here is high-rise buildings. But look at the beauty. The clear sky. The open space. It's wonderful.''