Mailbag: Time to turn the tide on Poseidon

Could the tide be turning against the proposed Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach (“Tides raise concerns over Poseidon plant,” Dec. 31)? Yet another red flag was raised to the myriad threats to our coastal environment posed by this development project.

It is not just the harm to marine life posed by the once-through cooling system, the discharge of concentrated brine and chemicals, and other negative impacts associated with the plant’s operation.

It is not just the significant negative impacts to the local infrastructure and the community with the construction of the massive water transmission pipeline through the southeast Huntington Beach area.

It is not just the significant energy costs associated with the project. It is not just the outrageous rip-off to water-rate payers with the deal being foisted upon us by the Orange County Water District.

It is not just the fact that the project’s location sits near an earthquake fault that would destroy transmission of the plant’s product and damage the plant itself. Now, we must worry about sea-level rise and big storms. The risks are mounting just like the powerful waves we’ve been experiencing.

What will it take to wake up the elected and appointed officials who hold the fate of this project in their hands? It will certainly take public outcry to offset the massive investments by partisan and business special interests to politicians who are all too willing to put “profits over people.” If the tide is to be turned, it is up to the citizenry to help turn it with waves of opposition. It needs to happen in 2016.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

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Coyotes an underreported threat

Re: “Coyotes, development among major H.B. stories of 2015,” Dec. 31:

In my small community, three cats were killed by coyotes within two weeks. I will tell you not one owner reported the killing. My conservative estimate is that one in 10 report a killing or attack, making the number more like 780 killings and attacks since October.

The only remedy for the coyote problem — besides keeping cats indoors and dogs leashed closely — is trap-neuter-return or setting up feed spots with sterilization meds in the food. There’s also sterilization injections without using surgical neutering.

Over time, the coyote population will decrease, and for now, they will cut back hunting easy prey in our neighborhoods with these feed stations set up. Overdevelopment has cut their natural prey source. Coyotes have scaled a 12-foot wall, making our walled-in dogs and cats targets for their food. They have no fear of humans and hunt our neighborhoods during the day as well as after dark. They’ve been seen going after dogs in our small community parks during the day.

Lynn Copeland

Huntington Beach

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We have multiple choices on testing

The testing frenzy that has for so long plagued the nation’s schooling systems is analogous to taking an ailing person’s temperature again and again in the hope that such repeated efforts will have a mitigating affect on the measurement.

Testing in its current standardized form began as a measure of school reform but eventually came to be thought of and practiced as the reform itself. Instead of focusing on testing, perhaps we can now put the emphasis on teaching.

After all, since its inception, testing in American schools has been a controversial practice. At the turn of the 20th century, French psychologist Alfred Binet developed a standardized test of intelligence. It eventually evolved into today’s version of the IQ test and became officially known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. By the time of World War I, standardized testing was becoming an ubiquitous part of American schooling.

But testing is not synonymous with learning. To learn most effectively, students require a curriculum that is relevant, involves them as active participants and emphasizes critical thinking (i.e., problem-solving skills). Testing need not and should not be eliminated, but it does need to be minimized, and then rethought and re-calibrated to the learning outcomes that reflect a meaningful and life-enhancing curriculum.

Mark Twain once remarked that he never let his schooling interfere with his education. We as teachers, parents and community members should not allow testing to interfere with, but instead, complement the educational process.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach