Ocean Pollution

* Re “Down the Drain: Urban Runoff Fouls Southern California Beaches,” Sept. 5-6: Last month, the Department of Public Works initiated the construction of the county’s first-ever storm drain diversion system to protect beach goers, marine life, the ocean and other natural resources. The Herondo Storm Drain low-flow diversion in Redondo Beach is the first of a series to be installed throughout the county. Additional projects will begin construction this month. The diversion system captures contaminated dry-weather urban runoff from storm drains and diverts it to the sewer system for treatment.

In the first six months of our public education efforts we made headway. Addressing pollution prevention poses great challenges because the activities most likely to cause pollution (i.e. using pesticides excessively, pouring used oil down the gutter, littering, etc.) are conducted hundreds of times a day by millions of individuals and thousands of commercial businesses. While there is no easy “fix” that will singularly prevent storm water pollution, L.A. County has secured measurable success in communicating the message that everyone must learn to adopt pollution prevention actions in their everyday routines.

MENERVA DAOUD, Program Dir.

Environmental Programs Division

L.A. County Dept. of Public Works

* Problem: excrement/urine on the street. Solution: toilet facilities.

L.A. County seems to be the most unfriendly place on Earth regarding restroom availability. The street-level problem is not limited to the homeless. I have seen tourists and others dash into an alley to take care of their fundamental biological needs. The money “saved” by eliminating restrooms for transit users, tourists, the homeless and others in an emergency is paltry compared with the resulting financial, health and social costs incurred by not having these facilities available. Would you rather have an available restroom facility or pay a top-notch biologist to tell you how many viruses are waiting to infect you? Personally, I’ll take the restroom and all its potential problems.

MICHAEL O’CONNELL

Long Beach

* Over the Labor Day weekend The Times reported that Santa Monica Bay is teeming with bacteria and viruses. This, you reported, is due to the overdevelopment of Los Angeles and the resulting toxic urban runoff into the ocean. In Business on Sept. 7 you then reported that the remaining swatches of undeveloped land left in L.A. should now be developed, because it would be too expensive to reuse the thousands of acres of already developed and abandoned land in our inner cities. In my opinion, the cost of no longer being able to swim at our beaches is much higher.

SANDRA LAGERSON

Westchester