Conservancy Would Be Good for Santa Ana River; Highway Won’t Be

Re “River’s Stature Is Rising” and “Making the Santa Ana River Watershed a Priority,” April 13:

Thanks for informing the public about this important issue. Few people, especially politicians, publicly come out against parks, an issue equal to mom and apple pie. When it comes to allocating money for parks, the tune changes. The creation of a Santa Ana River Conservancy will allow the Santa Ana River cities and agencies to capture some of the already-approved state bond money for use in our regional watershed.

The Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks is engaged in a project at the very bottom of the Santa Ana River Watershed: the Orange Coast River Park (www.ocfohbp.org/ocrp.htm). This park would encompass 10 separately owned properties; lie within the cities of Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach and the county of Orange; and be under the jurisdiction of the county, state and federal governments.

The Orange Coast River Park can serve as an example of how many agencies and private property owners can come together to preserve dwindling open space and natural habitat. This 1,000-acre park and nature preserve will be a jewel that could anchor a system extending all the way to the base of the San Bernardino Mountains below Big Bear Lake.

Dennis Baker

Member, Orange Coast

River Park Steering

Committee, Corona del Mar

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It’s fascinating to observe Orange County’s two new supervisors. They rode into office with support from the anti-El Toro folks, who spent a decade convincing us that the plan for an airport at El Toro was unsafe, unneeded, unwanted and a grotesque waste of money.

So what’s the first project that Chris Norby and Bill Campbell champion? A soaring elevated highway over Orange County’s only major flood control channel, the Santa Ana River, built on exactly the type of soil where amplification of earthquake waves has repeatedly destroyed elevated freeways and aqueducts. The project has questionable benefits and a huge price tag, with active opposition from the state agency that would need to provide the funding.

The same supervisors oppose Lou Correa’s bill to create a conservancy for the Santa Ana River. Our new leaders need to learn the lesson of their predecessors and advance beyond the level of planning where you draw lines on the map with crayons, and then start spending money and cranking out sound bites.

Let’s save time and money and immediately say no to an elevated highway over our only major flood control channel, with its unique opportunity to leverage disasters. Instead, let’s support the Santa Ana River Conservancy, with its opportunities to improve flood control, recreation and conservation.

Gus Ayer

Council Member

Fountain Valley

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A number of environmental projects are proposed for the Santa Ana River. They include 50 in 5, a project of the Newport Beach chapter of Surfrider Foundation. The goal is to reduce pollution at the mouth of the river by 50% in five years by diverting urban runoff into a series of ponds inside the proposed Orange Coast River Park. The ponds will remove various pollutants before the water is discharged into the river. Anything that will provide access to funding for our project, the park and other projects along the river would be welcome.

Nancy Gardner

Chairwoman,

Newport Beach chapter

Surfrider Foundation