$20-Million Lagoon Restoration Placed on Hold - Environment: Ecologic and oceanographic groups raise concerns about the impact that dredging Batiquitos will have.

A $20-million project to restore Carlsbad’s Batiquitos Lagoon has been stalled by concerns of environmental groups as Carlsbad planners and consultants go back to the drawing board to respond to their criticisms.

At a briefing Friday, Gary Wayne, Carlsbad’s principal planner, said response to the environmental impact report on the lagoon project will require more studies by the city staff and consultants to respond to “substantial issues” raised by concerned residents and by ecological and oceanographic groups.

About $600,000 already has been spent in preparing state and federal environmental impact reports, Wayne said. He could give no cost estimate for the additional work, which he said will concentrate on biological issues.

Pledged by Port

The plan is to open the landlocked lagoon to the ocean and turn it into a saltwater fish and wildlife sanctuary. Funds for the Batiquitos project have been pledged by the Port of Los Angeles to mitigate for loss of tidal wetland habitat because of port expansion there.

Dredging of about 3 million cubic yards of sand and silt that have clogged the 2.5-mile-long coastal lagoon at the south Carlsbad boundary and creation of a permanent ocean access by construction of jetties has been criticized as “major surgery” by detractors who feel that the lagoon should be left much in its current state with far fewer drastic changes to the brackish water habitat.

Wayne defended the proposed restoration project as the only long-term solution to the lagoon’s deteriorating condition. Major surgery is needed, he said. Proposals to make only minor changes on a phased basis, “would be like cutting out a little bit of cancer at a time. It doesn’t make sense.”

A three-year deadline for starting the restoration project expires in November, 1990, Wayne said. But, he added, the city’s lagoon agreement with five other governmental agencies allows the city to extend the deadline “if substantial progress is being made.”

Opening the lagoon to continuous tidal flushing and deepening it through dredging is the only possible way to reverse the buildup of silt threatening to replace the water area that is a habitat for coastal birds and marine life.

Held Hearings

The city held hearings on the draft environmental plan for the lagoon and received no comments, but later 38 written comments were received, including several with “substantive questions,” Wayne said.

Among the more important issues to be addressed in further studies is exploration of alternatives to the proposed project, including opening the lagoon to intermittent tidal flushing and reducing dredging to allow for shallow-water feeding areas, he explained.

Wayne said experience with intermittent tidal flushing at lagoons to the south of Batiquitos--such as at San Elijo, San Dieguito and Penasquitos--showed that the practice did not work well and that it killed the marine life in the lagoons each time the brackish or fresh water was replaced by salt water.

The jetties, he said, would cause no beach erosion along the coast, according to engineering studies. Sand dredged from the lagoon would be placed along Carlsbad beaches, he said.

The Port of Los Angeles is a “passive party” to the lagoon enhancement plan and is “being held hostage” by the groups delaying the project, Wayne said.

The port, which requires the Batiquitos project as partial mitigation for wetlands destruction from expansion on its property in San Pedro, “is viewed as the big, bad developer,” by environmental groups, Wayne said, but “that’s a misconception.”