Canyon Has Become a Costly Experiment
Sadly, Dr. Perry Ehlig has become part of Barry Hon’s public relations effort to build homes and a golf course on the Portuguese Bend landslide, and in Subregion 7.
Oddly enough, 1 million gallons of water a day watering golf courses is not damaging, but three inches of rain moves the PB slide more than 14 inches, and Abalone Cove somewhat less. Millions have been spent protecting the toe of the slide with wire baskets filled with rocks. Now, our city geologist says that’s been a waste, and we need $60 million to build a sea wall. What an ecological and financial disaster that would be.
No homeowners have opposed the city’s cleaning out the canyon channels for any reason, let alone to protect the sensitive ecosystem of the area. The canyon in question belongs to Hon.
The landslide has become Dr. Ehlig’s private lab in which to experiment. Abatement has done little to slow the slides; Mother Nature has just been kind to us with a drought.
It is time for the good doctor to retire--not because he is too old, but because he has climbed aboard Hon’s bandwagon. The payoff to the citizens, if the area is developed, is a humongous lawsuit when new homes begin to slide.
JOHN P. SHARKEY
Rancho Palos Verdes
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