Readers React: Can California make VW pay for fouling its air?

To the editor: I served for several years as a volunteer naturalist with the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps. As such, I worked on a number of projects that were paid for in part by money from the Montrose Chemical Corp. fund set up as mitigation for the illegal dumping of DDT and other toxic chemicals off the Southern California coast. (“Porsche caught up in scandal at VW,” Nov. 2)

The Montrose mitigation fund has been helpful in many environmental impact areas — for example, reestablishing the American bald eagle to Channel Islands National Park.

Volkswagen has similarly illegally dumped tons of diesel pollutants into our atmosphere over a number of years, and now the federal government believes that engines in vehicles from VW-owned Porsche and Audi might have done the same.

The state of California should sue Volkswagen for mitigation damages to help pay to solve air-quality issues, including non-polluting transit systems such as high-speed rail.

William Strojny, West Hills

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To the editor: So, Porsche and Audi engines are now implicated in the VW fraud.

I recently saw a TV commercial for Audi cars. You have to laugh at Audi’s slogan: “Truth in engineering.”

You couldn’t dream up something more comedic.

Jon Merritt, Los Angeles

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