Trouble on the Roads Ahead

Re “Action on Tollway Drainage Is Absent,” April 16:

Urban runoff--be it from the bucolic hills of Orange County’s bedroom communities or from a “pavement equals pollution” contributor, Caltrans--continues to be in a one-step-forward, two-steps-back mode.

Low flow or high flow, the picture will not significantly change because of several impediments: (1) Staff at regional water quality control boards is limited, and (2) chronic violators hold the sword of Damocles, a.k.a. appellate litigation, to assure noncompliance in the immediate future. If sanctioned, Caltrans can file an appeal that takes some time to be adjudicated, a “de facto” eco-extortion if all else fails when in noncompliance with EPA water-quality laws. This is “Apocalypse Now” for environmental advocates, and for those who fight the sloth of regulatory change: Welcome to the jungle!

ROGER VON BUTOW

Clean Water Now! Coalition

Laguna Beach

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“I vision a place where people can live together more pleasantly than any other place in America. I am going to build a beautiful city on the ocean where the whole city will be a park.” (Ole Hanson, 1925). This was Ole Hanson’s vision and he made it come true.

San Clemente is a beautiful city with its clean ocean water and parklike ambience. I consider myself fortunate to live here. But now our little city by the ocean is being threatened by the possibility of a toll road being built through our back country.

After reading “Tollway Runoff Filtering Approaches Total Failure” (April 6), I truly fear for our city. How can the Transportation Corridor Agencies even consider building another toll road? Besides polluting our ocean surf and bringing unwanted development, this toll road will bring something much more destructive, and that is the pollution of our watershed. This is the water residents drink.

DONNA McGINNES

San Clemente

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Re “Driven to Differences on Toll Road,” letters, April 8:

You printed three letters concerning the recent hearings on extension of the Foothill (California 241) toll road south. One alleges that the northbound 241 is already congested before it reaches the Riverside Freeway (91). I have driven this route a number of times and have not seen this. Certainly the 91 is congested and needs augmentation of some kind.

Since 1975 when Gov. Jerry Brown announced that “Small Is Beautiful,” freeway construction and maintenance have lagged in California. Population growth has not. Mission Viejo is a “gateway city” because much of the current and future development in Orange County is east of the city, whose east-west streets are already at capacity.

North-south transit in south Orange County is limited to Pacific Coast Highway, hardly an artery, and Interstate 5. The residents of the new developments to the east must pass through our city to reach Interstate 5. Completion of the tollway, originally a planned freeway route, would relieve some of the congestion on Interstate 5 between Camp Pendleton and Interstate 405, where the freeway doubles in width.

A few years ago a political decision to take the 241 east to the 91 instead of west to Interstate 5 reduced the potential value of the route. Still, by using the Laguna Freeway (133), the 241 traffic reaches Interstate 5 north of the El Toro Y. Extension of the 241 tollway south and its eventual conversion to a freeway when the bonds are retired are essential to the quality of life in south Orange County.

The people who are protesting this essential infrastructure addition are wrong, and many do not even live here. If they want to buy the land that is being developed and turn it into parks, they should do so. I might even make a small contribution. Otherwise, they should allow us to deal with reality.

MICHAEL T. KENNEDY

Mission Viejo