Desalination, Other Water Issues Worry Some

Re “Lowered Aquifer Will Raise Water Imports and Cost,” Sept. 24:

Considering that we’re in the midst of a serious drought, I can’t say I’m surprised that Orange County has overdrawn its water supply by 133 billion gallons.

However, I find it interesting that just four days before this article, The Times ran a story saying the state Department of Health Services has given the green light to Poseidon Resources’ proposed seawater desalination facility in Huntington Beach. I hope the Orange County Water District is working with Poseidon so that Orange County has access to this vast new source of drinking water.

Southern California will be getting less and less water from Northern California and the Colorado River in the near future. And as the supply of imported water goes down, the cost will go up. Instead of continuing our reliance on imported water, we need to pursue local water sources such as desalination.

William D. Lochrie

Fullerton

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The unfortunate mind-set of area planners seems to be that our ocean is a trash receptacle.

Case in point: a half-baked plan to build the largest desalination plant in the country in southeast Huntington Beach.

As a person who tries to stay involved in local water-quality issues, I have gone to the trouble of attending several meetings held by Poseidon Resources, the would-be builder of this nightmare waiting to happen, as well as studying the environmental impact report it has put forth.

Let me be the first to debunk the myth that we need the water.

As I write this letter, many gallons of water are being wasted, and I have no reason to believe that, were we to procure more water from the desalination process, we wouldn’t waste that as well.

Further, the Orange County Sanitation District dumps 243 million gallons of effluent each day out of its outfall pipe.

More than 99% of this discharge is water, ripe for full reclamation. To those naysayers who think the public wouldn’t drink reclaimed waste water, may I point out that here in our area, we already drink from the Santa Ana River, which is made up by and large of treated waste water from sanitation districts upstream of the Prado Dam.

Further, it is easier to clean waste water than ocean water. And what about the briny discharge? Poseidon plans to dump the discharge into the ocean, and the 500-foot surrounding area is projected to be 10% above background salinity. Just imagine what this area would look like after a few years of this.

Building this expensive and destructive plant will lock us into a primitive way of dealing with our coastal environment for many years to come.

Joey Racano

Huntington Beach

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Re “Attorney General to Probe Decision on Water Quality,” Sept. 24:

The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board is widening its attack on perchlorate contamination in local ground water, not weakening the investigation.

At our Sept. 13 hearing, the board ordered an investigation of all parties that may be responsible. The board’s decision to rescind its order against Goodrich Corp. and Kwikset Corp. was based on the likelihood that focusing on two potential sources of the problem, rather than up to 40, would not have yielded immediate progress.

The board clearly recognizes the severity of this problem and the need for immediate progress. Our revised approach is already bearing fruit. Earlier this week Goodrich was ordered to begin an investigation of perchlorate contamination at its former site in Rialto.

Many similar orders will be forthcoming in the days and weeks ahead, as we move forward with maintaining the safety of our water supply in the Inland Empire.

Jerry Thibeault

Executive Officer

Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board