Letters to the Editor: Desalination is the best option to fend off future droughts

Re. “Commentary: Barbara Boxer’s desalination plant lobbying betrays her legacy,” (May 5): Delay and debate over desalination in Orange County have gone on too long – the time for action is now. Poseidon’s proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach will deliver a sustainable solution to Orange County’s long-term drought and water security issues. Will it be expensive? Yes. Are there environmental risks? Yes. But the costs and impacts of this desalination plant will be minor compared to the consequences of not taking action to secure Orange County’s water supply.

Poseidon’s plant is an insurance policy. Critics of the long-term “take-or-pay” agreement fail to appreciate this. Poseidon’s desalinated water will ensure that Orange County’s community and economy remain vibrant and prosperous in times of drought. Like any insurance policy, it costs money even when it’s not needed. One doesn’t wait to buy homeowners insurance until one’s house is in flames. Paying for a drought-proof water supply works the same way – investment now will protect the county in the long run.

No solution to county water needs is completely without environmental impact. The Poseidon plant has two environmental impacts affecting the ocean near Huntington Beach: (1) brine discharge, and (2) marine life impingement and entrainment. But by cleverly utilizing the seawater-handling infrastructure from the existing Huntington Beach power plant, these desalination impacts will be minimized. Furthermore, desalination impacts are less harmful than the damage that dams and aqueducts inflict on fragile river and estuarial ecosystems.

Desalination is not a silver bullet, but it is the best, most practical and most robust water supply solution for Orange County. It will protect community vitality and prosperity in times of drought better than alternatives, and will do so at lower economic and environmental cost. Innovation is never free, and there are always those who argue against and seek to delay progress. But the county needs act now in order to have a secure water supply come the next drought.

The Poseidon Desalination plant at Huntington Beach is in the best interest of Orange County, its economy, its future vitality and its citizens. The project should proceed without further delay.

Randy Carlson

San Diego

The writer is director of the board of the SolRio Organization for Climate Change Mitigation Inc.

Embrace, rather than alienate, ‘the other’

As the nation becomes more and more divided, “othering” becomes the way we sort ourselves out politically and culturally. A few examples highlight the problem. To those on the ideological right, these are othering words: leftist, anything-goes, tree-hugger, gay-rights supporter, socialist, evolutionist, secular humanist.

Those on the left have their own set of alienating words: right-wing extremist, homophobic, fundamentalist, anti-immigrant, militarist, gun nut, climate-denier.

Once we brand someone with an othering label, we put them in an alien world that to us is suspicious, threatening, un-American and, in many respects, evil. We dare not discuss politics with the other or cooperate with them. The other is an object of contempt and must at best be tolerated in the spirit of the First Amendment. At worst, we hate the other and have little regard for their well-being. And sometimes hate leads to anger and violence, as in the case of the KKK, ISIS recruits or the anti-facists.

At the root of othering is a culture of suspicion and fear. The other is threatening to one’s way of life — politically, morally, ethnically, financially.

Many conservatives, for example, fear that Muslim immigrants will make Sharia (Islamic law) a part of our legal system or that the gay-rights agenda will lead to moral decay.

Liberals, for their part, fear that withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, as the president has threatened, dashes any hope of curtailing a warming planet. Or they worry that government defunding of Planned Parenthood will seriously jeopardize the health of poorer women.

The problem is that othering keeps us from reaching out to those with different world views and becoming wiser for doing so. We can continue down this path and become one nation divisible, or start listening to the other and finding better solutions — on immigration and health care, for example — for the building of a more perfect union.

Benjamin J. Hubbard

Costa Mesa

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