Only Details Left in Plan to Restore Batiquitos

Agreement on a $15-million restoration plan for Carlsbad’s Batiquitos Lagoon became the only stumbling block Wednesday for construction of a $1.6-billion project that includes a vast oil terminal and storage facility in Los Angeles Harbor, plus a 1,030-mile pipeline from the port to refineries in Texas.

The Los Angeles terminal received approval by the state Coastal Commission on a 9-3 vote after a lengthy hearing in Culver City.

Milton Phegley, ports coordinator for the Coastal Commission, said that the applicant, Pacific Texas Pipeline Co., must return to the commission for approval of the plan to restore the coastal lagoon in Carlsbad to health--an off-site project required of Texas Pacific as mitigation for damage done to coastal wetlands within the Port of Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles terminal is being built to receive Alaskan crude oil from tankers and to transship the crude via the pipeline to refineries in Midland, Tex. About 15 million cubic yards of soil will be dredged to create a 110-acre island in the harbor for the terminal facilities and oil storage tank farm.

Phegley said that the commission staff recommendation that would have reduced the landfill area to 15 acres and relocated the tank farm to less-sensitive coastal property failed to gain commission approval by a 10-2 margin.

The Batiquitos Lagoon restoration plan is nearing its final form, Laurie Marcus, state Coastal Conservancy spokeswoman, told the commission. A meeting within the next week or so will iron out minor disagreements among the Coastal Conservancy staff, the state Department of Fish and Game, and Larry Clemons, a representative of Hunt Properties, which owns much of the surrounding land and most of the lagoon’s water area.

At a meeting in January where the lagoon restoration plan was expected to receive final approval from all the involved agencies, Clemens objected to location of a freshwater pond for migrating waterfowl at the northeastern edge of the lagoon. He asked that it be relocated to the mouth of San Marcos Creek, one of two streams that feed fresh water into the saltwater lagoon.

The restoration plan will provide freshwater and saltwater wildlife refuge areas, will open the lagoon mouth to the ocean to allow tidal flushing, and will provide enough sand from dredging to restore about 4 miles of Carlsbad’s ocean beaches.