Plans to Save Lagoon Bogged Down by Suit : Ailing Batiquitos needs dredging, not court battle

After seven years and $2 million in studies, the plan approved by the California Coastal Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several other agencies for the restoration of sediment-filled Batiquitos Lagoon seems like a reasonable one. There’s even a way to pay for it, which in tight times and with many important environmental projects going begging, is a significant factor.

So it is difficult to understand the objections of the Sierra Club and the Buena Vista Audubon Society, which have sued the Coastal Commission regarding the amount of dredging that would be done to open the 600-acre lagoon to tidal flushing. The two environmental groups acknowledge that the lagoon is ailing and needs restoration. But they are concerned that the plan would dredge too much of the lagoon too quickly without sufficient knowledge of the effects on wildlife and the overall wetland ecosystem.

The Sierra Club and the Audubon Society’s concerns about the future of the lagoon are understandable. Biologists estimate that 90% of California’s wildlife-rich wetlands have been destroyed, making the remaining few particularly precious.

But, the experts say, very little is known about the lagoon wildlife and ecosystem.

Because of that, the two environmental organizations argue, dredging plans should be as conservative as possible. Too much dredging could cause irreparable damage unknowingly, jeopardizing one of the only remaining shallow saltwater bodies for shore birds in California.

But Batiquitos is not a wetlands laboratory, where study can continue indefinitely. It is a dying lagoon. Over several decades, development, agriculture and the construction of Interstate 5 have produced runoff carrying fine particles of soil that are filling up the lagoon, gradually changing it into an area of vegetation rather than a wetland.

The fact that this plan would be paid for by the Port of Los Angeles, which hopes to obtain “mitigation credits” that would allow it to dredge and fill in San Pedro Bay, should not cloud the issue. This is not a private deal between Los Angeles and the city of Carlsbad. There are ample environmental reviews and safeguards in place to keep the Los Angeles port’s needs from dictating the best Batiquitos restoration plan. The Coastal Commission says it will not be deciding how many credits are earned until the project is complete, which it estimates will take three years.

The plan that prompted the Sierra Club and Audubon Society suit has been scaled back considerably. Yet their suit continues. They say they are not satisfied with the compromise restoration plan, but they have not offered a substantive alternative. Instead they have hired a hydrologist for further study.

Seven years of study is enough. It’s time to put up a better plan or drop the suit.