Treatment plan is needed for future Re:...

Treatment plan is needed for future

Re: “A Tough Plan to Stomach,” Huntington Beach Independent

editorial, Jan. 20.

First, your readers should know that in every developed area of

the world, people are drinking purified sewer water. Our imported

water from Northern California and the Colorado River have sewer

water plants that purify water and return it to river, lakes and

streams before it gets to Southern California. This has been going on

for years. Today’s advance purification systems, the same ones that

will be used to purify ocean water, can purify wastewater to a level

as good as or better than bottled water.

We are doing this because we live in an arid region, dependent on

imported water to survive. We are doing this to meet predicted future

water shortages. Cutbacks in our future imported water supplies means

that we need to find new sources of water. In the present water

environment in the western United States and California, we would be

irresponsible if we pay to import water into Orange County, use it

once and dump it into the ocean.

The Orange County Water District is now developing the Groundwater

Replenishment System, an advanced sewer water purification plant that

will continue to protect the groundwater and also replenish it. The

technologies that will be used in this project are the same as those

used to purify baby foods, sterilize medicines and produce bottled

water -- microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light and

hydrogen peroxide disinfection. Ultraviolet light and hydrogen

peroxide disinfection provides additional assurance that no unwanted

contaminants will pass through the system and the water will be the

highest quality possible.

As a chemist, I can tell you there are technologies like the ones

used in the groundwater replenishment program that purify water so

well, you cannot determine the original source of that water. It is

so pure, that like bottled water, we need to add minerals back to it

before it can be used or even transported.

RALPH BAUER

Huntington Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Bauer is a former mayor of Huntington Beach.

Better worries to have about water

In regards to “Future is only a flush away” (Jan. 13), Huntington

Beach needs to realize that in Orange County’s efforts to prevent

seawater intrusion into our freshwater wells, the water we pump into

the ground is in fact the same semi-treated waste water that would be

recycled. So, as much as residents reject water recycling, even

today, this water gets recycled through the aquifer, filtered and

sent straight to our taps. Perhaps we should be more concerned with

the millions of gallons in untreated waste being dumped offshore by

the Orange County Sanitation District plant at Brookhurst and Pacific

Coast Highway, which fouls our beaches and damages the city’s

reputation, than with a strictly controlled process to reuse a

precious resource.

JEFFREY GOODMAN

Huntington Beach

Water District does a commendable job

You should take another look at the facts and reassure readers

that groundwater replenishment will produce safe, high-quality water.

Granted this issue is very complicated, however, once people

understand the real facts and the circumstance we water users are in,

I have experienced nothing but enthusiastic support for the Ground

Water Replenishment System.

The circumstance I refer to is twofold:

* It is essential that we refill our underground aquifer as our

growing demand for water is depleting it faster than it naturally

replenishes.

* Unless we act to build up the salt water intrusion barrier the

underground salt water from the ocean will contaminate the fresh

water in the aquifer. Groundwater replenishment solves both problems.

National experts from the Center for Disease Control and similar

prestigious health organizations, the California Department of Health

Services and health experts from around the world have studied and

endorsed this water purification project because it produces the

safest water Orange County can possibly get to refill its groundwater

basin. The water quality will exceed that of bottled drinking water.

In addition to providing north and central Orange County with a

new supplemental source of purified water, the project offers a

number of important environmental benefits:

* Replenishes a most valuable water resource, the underground

aquifer.

* Protects the fresh water in our groundwater aquifer from

contamination from underground salt water from the ocean

* Requires half the energy to produce new water than importing

water from Northern California and the Colorado River.

* Reuses a valuable resource -- water.

* Reduces the amount of wastewater we are discharging to the

ocean.

I am investing my time by serving on both the project’s advisory

committee and the Scientific Advisory Panel because I believe this

project is the right answer for all of us that demand water every day

without even thinking about it.

Join me in applauding the Orange County Water District for having

the vision that will ensure water for future demands and making it

happen.

GARRY BROWN

Orange County Coastkeeper

Freeway needs to stop in its tracks

Your article “Freeway could hit Huntington” mentions public

hearings to avoid mistakes by our bureaucracy (Jan. 20). Let’s kill

that idea before it’s too late!

The Orange County Transportation Authority is not connected with

reality in its thinking. We already have the Costa Mesa Freeway,

which could be enlarged and/or extended. Does Los Angeles have a

separate north and south freeway every two or three miles apart?

Alice Rogan says in regard to the proposed freeway along

Brookhurst, that a lot of traffic (is being) “diverted to Beach and

Harbor Boulevards and that is causing negative impact on local

neighborhoods.”

Just one minute!

What kind of negative impact will be caused by the addition of

another freeway through my neighborhood? Probably somewhere around

100,000 to 200,000 people will have Rogan to blame for total

destruction of what little peace and quiet we now enjoy.

But as is the case with actions such as this by our bureaucrats,

fellow citizens, speak now or forever hold you peace!

BERT GALLEMORE

Huntington Beach

Freeway would destroy Surf city

Are they kidding?

We moved into this area in 1966 when there were only three tracts

paralleling the Santa Ana River bed and bean fields. One of the

things that have kept us here through the years is that compared to

some other parts of the city this area remained basically a bedroom

community that was close to the beach and a great place to raise a

couple of kids. A project such as this will destroy our community.

All you have to do is take a look at the Santa Monica freeway and

Pacific Coast Highway to see the impact a project like this would

make i.e. air pollution, increased traffic and increased noise. As

for Councilwomen Cathy Green, no it’s not only the businesses you

should be worried about but the quality of life of the residents of

Huntington Beach -- who, by the way, elected you.

RICHARD SEPULVEDA

Huntington Beach

No bones about the freeway

We are strongly against the plan to extend Orange Freeway from

Anaheim to Pacific Coast Highway.

BILL and DAISY LEE

Huntington Beach

River trail is a boon not to lose

Not everyone drives a car. I use the Santa Ana River bike trail to

commute to and from work 10 miles each way and have depended on that

trail for most of my life to commute between my home in Huntington

Beach and other locations within the county. The bike commute along

the river is used by numerous walkers, bikers, hikers, dog walkers,

joggers, and surfers.

They probably chose this route for the same reason I do -- I its

one of the only places left in Orange County where nonauto transit is

possible without the danger, noise, pollution and threat that

automobile transit presents.

Please don’t destroy feasible nonauto transit opportunities for

another congested freeway.

STEVE SCHULZ

Huntington Beach

A few bad RVs ruin the bunch

I couldn’t agree more with John Fitzgerald’s letter in the Mailbag

of the Jan. 20 issue of the Independent (“RV changes will benefit

Huntington”).

Fitzgerald must write for a living because his letter was very

well put together, addressed the issues and countered every point of

Bob Polkow’s prior letter as well as most of the other self-centered

writers who support the status quo.

As Fitzgerald points out, there are a small number of very vocal

RV owners who evidently believe they have the right to store their

RVs on public streets and blight our neighborhoods. Ask the residents

of Fountain Valley, Santa Ana and many other cities if their

communities aren’t more visually appealing and safe because of their

RV parking (storage) limitations. This proposed change probably

wouldn’t have become necessary if RV owners, across the board, had a

better sense of what was right and what was against the existing law.

Perhaps these proponents of no limitations should be out policing our

neighborhoods for the overt offenders, of which there are many.

One in our neighborhood has parked his less than 25-foot RV on the

street for at least 10 years, moving it only on street sweepings days

for an hour or two. The RV-owning community should be sending this

kind of RV owner letters telling them that they are ruining

street-parking for them because of their blatant disregard for their

neighbors and creating a safety hazard. When people complain, a

notice of violation is posted, the RV is moved overnight and then

returned to the street for another two months. A very large majority

of Huntington Beach residents support the proposed new rules and

would expect them to be fully enforced.

STEPHEN SHERMOEN

Huntington Beach