Mailbag: Mansoor voted wrong way on fracking bill

I recently read that our assemblyman, Allan Mansoor (R-Costa Mesa), voted against Assembly Bill 1323, which would have ordered a temporary halt to fracking in California.

I was disappointed that he chose to help kill this modest attempt to allow further time to verify that the fracking process in California either would be OK or destructive to our water supply. Also, time should be allowed, if necessary, to finish crafting important regulations.

Studies have shown the serious problems in some areas of the U.S. in which fracking destroyed deep-water supplies for humans, animals, farming and trees, etc. An article in the June 25 Los Angeles Times gives more rationale for this temporary hold on fracking. The excellent HBO TV program of July 8 further documented how in a number of states unregulated fracking destroyed human living conditions and property values.

Importantly, much of Southern California was, and in part, still is, a desert. Our desert demands that water must come from somewhere else year-round for all of its millions of people. Costa Mesa gets much of its water from our deep-water wells! We don’t want deep water wells in our county, nor state, to possibly be “destroyed” by fracking!

Of added potential local concern is the potentially near-time dangerous Inglewood-Newport fault. I clearly remember the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, with the fireplace falling at my feet as I ran past it. And there are many more fault lines around us. Costa Mesa has three known earthquake fault lines underneath us. Although many of the faults are deep below us, California, especially, has a history of earth movements that impact the surface and near surface.

Mansoor should oppose fracking until we are sure that it is safely and properly used and controlled in California.

Frank Forbath

Costa Mesa

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A pro-life viewpoint

I’ve been reading the many articles and readers’ letters on the rights women have to make their own choice whether to terminate a pregnancy and at what stage they may do this.

The people who are pro-choice sound so clinical and devoid of emotion. They speak of a fetus and they might as well call it a “blob.” Well, the heartbeat of a “fetus” can be seen at nine weeks and heard at 12 weeks. I prefer to say “baby,” because that is what it is.

My granddaughter is expecting her first baby, and I will be a great-grandmother. She was told the baby had a fast heartbeat and she could be having a girl, but at 12 weeks the sonogram showed it’s a boy. It was as if he wanted his identity revealed to her right now! Now, at 15 weeks, the baby is the size of an avocado, growing hair and can hear. I wonder what an abortion sounds like to a baby!

Barbara Teskey

Newport Coast