Batiquitos Lagoon

A snowy egret wading through the shallows, a snowy plover foraging on the muddy flats, a red-winged blackbird flitting among the cattails, soft sunlight wrapping the lagoon in a tranquil embrace. No wonder local painters find inspiration at Batiquitos Lagoon near Leucadia. Such quiet beauty is a short hike from the trail head, so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to find a half-dozen artists stationed by their easels along the shore of the lagoon.

The Port of Los Angeles approved final design work to start an ambitious wetlands restoration project at Batiquitos Lagoon near Carlsbad. Officials from the port joined Mayor Bud Lewis and other city officials at a news conference Wednesday announcing approval of the project, which has an estimated cost of $45 million. Construction may begin in 1994, officials said.

A Vista Superior Court judge will rule next week on a lawsuit that has blocked the eight-year struggle to renovate Batiquitos Lagoon, he announced Friday after several hours of legal arguments. Attorneys for the California Coastal Commission, the city of Carlsbad and the Port of Los Angeles argued against a representative of the Sierra Club and the local chapter of the Audubon Society over how best to enhance the 2 1/2-mile long, half-mile wide stretch of wetland.

Step aside, Sierra Club and Audubon Society, the restoration of pristine Batiquitos Lagoon is marching on. Despite dogged efforts by those environmental groups to prevent any intrusions upon the 600-acre lagoon, considered one of the last unspoiled wetlands in Southern California, Carlsbad city officials said they will proceed with final design work on the $45-million Batiquitos Lagoon Enhancement Project. Construction is expected to begin by 1994.

People interested in Batiquitos Lagoon--both those who want to preserve it and those who want to develop around it--may have come into some unexpected good luck last week when the Port of Los Angeles and the Pacific Texas Pipeline Co. offered to spend $10 million restoring the lagoon. The unusual proposal comes about as part of a federal requirement that the port and pipeline company compensate for destroying environmentally important tidal land with their future projects.

A nude body found Sunday near a Carlsbad lagoon was identified Thursday as the wife of a Marine stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station who reported her missing last week. A spokesman for the San Diego County coroner's office said the body of Nancy Alison White, 22, was identified through dental records. Mrs. White was reported missing Aug. 27 after her car broke down at a rest area on Interstate 8, five miles east of El Cajon.

This afternoon, on the shores of the Batiquitos Lagoon in San Diego County, officials from six agencies will sign a pact allowing the Port of Los Angeles to "restore" 390 acres of shallow wetlands, home to the endangered California least tern and other rare birds. The restoration is a so-called mitigation project, intended to compensate for the destruction of marine habitat when the port builds a landfill in San Pedro Bay.

An ambitious plan to increase Batiquitos Lagoon's value as a wildlife habitat by dredging millions of cubic yards of sediment from its shallow floor was approved Tuesday by the California Coastal Commission. The approval of the so-called "Blue Lagoon" plan was a clear victory for the city of Carlsbad, which had proposed that more than 3.7 million cubic yards of sediment be dredged from the 600-acre wetlands area to maintain an open flow of cleansing seawater.

The high-profile Texas Hunt brothers, Nelson Bunker and W. Herbert, have sold their 1,400-acre holding on the northern shore of Carlsbad's Batiquitos Lagoon to low-profile Henry Lee Hillman, a Pittsburgh industrialist ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the 20 wealthiest men in the United States.