Mailbag: Proposed lighted message board should be deleted

Clear Channel Communications is petitioning the city of Fountain Valley to approve a final environmental impact report to install a mammoth, brightly lit advertising board at the 405 Freeway and Euclid offramp next to the city water tank.

What a tragedy this would be.

The notice of this week’s Planning Commission public hearing was only sent to Fountain Valley property owners who live within, get this, 500 feet of the physical location of the proposed reader boards.

The reality of the situation is that these boards will be seen from a mile away or farther. Not only will this drastically change the quality of life for the nearby Costa Mesa residents, it probably will increase traffic accidents since these back-to-back billboards of brightly lit LED advertising will bathe drivers in intrusive light to catch their attention.

The city plans to allow Clear Channel to install this intrusive LED board on Fountain Valley city-owned property. Does the city have to abide by the codes and regulations it has put in place for property owners, residents and businesses?

What I also find interesting is a tagline at the bottom of the notice of the public hearing: “If the proposed action is challenged in court, there may be a limitation to raising only those issues raised at the public hearing described in this notice or in written correspondence delivered to the Planning Commission at or prior to the public hearing.”

What are they saying, “You snooze, you lose”?

Leston Trueblood

Fountain Valley

Desalinated water is necessary part of solution

In the early 1970s, Henry Segerstrom, founder of South Coast Plaza and Orange County’s premier performing arts centers, served on the Orange County Water District’s board of directors and testified before Congress to demonstrate the necessity of refilling our groundwater basin through water recycling and desalination.

Since that time, Orange County’s population has doubled from 1.5 million in 1972 to 3 million today. With our current water supply challenges and growing population, the need for desalination is greater than ever.

A recent survey conducted by the Mesa Water District showed that 70% of respondents approve of an $89 annual rate increase to support the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant. This project would provide drinking water, seawater barrier injection wells and the recharge of the Orange County groundwater basin.

The Orange County Water District has been recharging the groundwater basin with imported supplies since the 1940s. In the 1970s, OCWD began recharging the basin with reclaimed water from the sanitary district.

Today, 100 million gallons of recycled water are produced for recharge every day. However, groundwater recharge could be greatly increased by desalinated ocean water that the Huntington Beach plant would supply.

We have sound, practical solutions to our current water supply challenges. Adding desalinated ocean water to the county’s water supply portfolio is timely and would provide a safe, local and reliable drinking water supply.

Shawn Dewane

The writer is president of the Mesa Water District board.