Clean Water Versus Waivers, Development

Re “Poor Data Found to Stall Water Cleanup,” June 16:

According to the National Academy of Sciences, agencies responsible for water quality don’t even measure the level of pollution correctly. Add to this the fact that water pollution abatement is an abject failure, particularly for non-point sources such as urban runoff, as evidenced by the state of our beaches, and particularly San Juan and Aliso creeks.

Yet the county and the state and federal agencies seem to have no problem with allowing more and more development in our watersheds in the southern part of the county.

Responsible public agencies must declare a moratorium on development in our watersheds until proof exists of effective methods of pollution measurement and abatement. The economic incentives for this might simply be the loss of tourism dollars due to unusable beaches and the loss of productivity due to the absence of our beaches as a recreational resource for Orange County working folks.

David Perlman

Laguna Beach

The Orange County Sanitation District should not be allowed to pollute our ocean with only partially treated sewage, using a federal waiver as an excuse not to treat the sewage to the proper levels (Editorial, June 9).

Orange County is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, but we have a sanitation district that treats sewage from its 2.4-million residents to one of the lowest levels in the nation.

Even more disgracefully unacceptable is that the county then dumps this sewage into the ocean just 4 miles off our coast.

The Orange County Sanitation District must treat the sewage to the levels mandated by the Clean Water Act, which is full secondary treatment. I, for one, would be willing to pay the required 5 cents a day to make sure everyone’s sewage is treated to at least secondary levels before going into the ocean.

I want a clean ocean for myself and future generations.

Kathrine K. Fox

Laguna Niguel

It is the job of scientists to study problems and make discoveries. It is the job of activists to make the public aware of problems. Without the problem neither has a job.

We have no need of either, one might think. Of ocean sewage there is no more need to study the problem; everyone is already aware of the problem. What is needed is action.

No more testing for bacteria when viruses are the real problem. No more wondering which way the currents run. They run toward the beach. Is there a leader out there who can make the solution happen?

As long as we send all of the excrement of this society into the ocean, there can be no honor here. It is a very glib world indeed when all the celebrities, developers and smug, self-satisfied types can be so self-congratulatory while committing such horrible criminal acts against nature.

Peter Zappas

Laguna Beach