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While San Diego's Mayor Sanders
calls for water conservation, higher rates and expensive, risky desalination schemes, Point Loma dumps over 170,000,000 gallons
of poorly treated wastewater into the Ocean every day.
This immense disposal of potentially valuable water would be a good place to start looking for new water supplies
for San Diego. Reclaimed water, if properly treated, could, with conservation, reduce the need for new water supplies
and actually lower water bills.
Poorly treated sewage dumped into the Ocean means swimmers are playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with their health.
Elevated levels of live bacteria can't be good for swimmers and fish, while
virus and roundworm larvae are not even part of the testing
regimen.
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The only testing is for live indicator coliform bacteria.
Dead bacteria, viable virus, live nematode worms, viable brain worm larvae and
other parasites are allowed to float to shore along with fecal flakes and more than 83 contaminants that elude
current treatment, including caffeine, pharmaceuticals, birth control, estrogen mimicers and other drugs and chemicals.
There is no requirement that the sewage district post
any warning about swimming
in fecal sewage material other than live coliform bacteria.
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Raccoon and feral cat roundworms, for example, are
transmitted through feces, and, when they hatch inside a mammal body, can tunnel to the brain or eyes, where they
encyst. One
such disease is the Brain
Worms found in Sea Otters exposed to cat feces in poorly treated
wastewater. Brain worm larvae lodge in sea crabs and muscles, and, when ingested, begin their life cycle all over
again inside a mammalian host.
It's so much simpler to just get rid of the waiver, and clean the Beach and Ocean, than to deal with brain parasites
in the water we swim in.
Everyone knows in their hearts that the waiver must be stopped, and our valuable Beach property rights restored.
But it takes courage to do what's right, and it's so much easier to deny the facts and postpone cleaning up the
Beach and Ocean.
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Orange
County Sanitation District had the longest tradition of poor treatment of sewage and the most arrogant attitude
about their "waiver" which allowed them to skip some sewage treatment. Few had much hope the situation
could be fixed, and many openly sneered or laughed at our chances.
Yet a small group of citizens, concerned about Beach
and Ocean quality amidst persistent beach closures, and desiring to improve business, surfing, swimming, boating,
fishing, tourism and the habitat, created a multi-pronged, fantastic storybook campaign that cleaned the beach
and led to improved water qualtiy.
Despite a viper's pit of paid biostitutes, bribed politicians, paid-off consultants, tame Regional Water Board,
never-ending million dollar "studies", and outrageous special interests, the campaign won thanks to:
- Daily picketing by Joey Racano and others,
- City-by-city campaign led by Jan Vandersloot, Larry Porter,
and others, that brought 15 of the 25 cities in the District over to the clean side,
- Irvine Company, Joan Irvine Smith, Steve Bone, and other business
leaders,
- Leadership by Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook and La Habra,
Orange, La Palma, Seal Beach, etc.,
- About 5,000 concerned Citizens contacted by the Sierra Club,
Surfrider, and Earth Resource Foundation,
- State intervention led by then-Assemblymembers Ken Maddox and
Alan Lowenthal.
Now, the Orange Coast is cleaner, the "mysterious"
closures due to sewage dumping have stopped, and the battle moves on to
San Diego, the last waiver!
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