Lagoon Lawsuit

“It’s a very complicated issue,” is the most frequent answer to questions about the project to dredge Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad. The reasons for a lawsuit are not complicated at all.

1. The Environmental Impact Report process required by law was subverted. This report process, required by the California Environmental Quality Act, is meant to protect our natural resources. The EIR prepared for this project triggered a blizzard of objections. Over a thousand comments, many from highly qualified scientists, were submitted. A final EIR failed to address the concerns of the public.

2. Crucial questions remain unanswered today. For example: the description of probable resulting conditions, including habitat acreages, was not presented. Regional aspects of the proposed project, crucial to acceptability, was given very cursory attention. The same is true for projected impacts to existing bird species. Even the engineering study’s field data remains under criticism.

3. The biological needs of the existing lagoon in Carlsbad would have been the appropriate focus of the project design. Instead, the engineering study took precedence. Recognition of this fact is necessary to an understanding of how a project so expensively promoted can be so damaging to the environment.

4. One of the most eminent wetland scientists of this country recommends phasing restoration and creation projects to permit the maximum amount of educated adjustment to subsequent phases. This basic (protective) principle has been ignored in the design of the proposed project.

A critic of the lawsuit recently stated that this would be a model for projects up and down the California Coast. This is generally recognized. It is the very reason that any such project must be designed carefully and correctly. The proposed project is a very large experiment in a small place.

INEZ YODER, Carlsbad