‘Santa Monica Bay on the Mend’

In response to Bascom’s article, I offer the following anecdote and commentary.

I was surfing recently near the Santa Monica Pier when a giant slick of gray oily sludge drifted into my board. I paddled to the sand and questioned a lifeguard. He pointed to a drainpipe and said, “I never swim out in front of there. That’s where the lifeguards died of cancer.” I was told to move a couple of hundred yards down the beach.

While the levels of DDT and PCB may be lower than 10 years ago, the statistics of “environmental scientists” and “professionals” can be misleading.

Even if a secondary treatment plant does not make sense, Bascom should make himself privy to the empirical evidence. The sludge comes in all colors, and whether one chooses the label “contamination” or “pollution,” it is a “damaging excess.”

In conclusion, I am not a “well-meaning but misinformed environmentalist.” Science is served by the senses, and any surfer would tell you, Mr. Bascom, “Hey dude, you must be blind.”

BRUCE GAIMS

Panorama City