Exception Noted

Editor,

Tuesday's City Council meeting left me, like many others, with plenty of questions. One thing I know for sure: I take exception to the City Council's State Marine Reserve (SMR) "exception" of the Aliso Creek Ocean Outfall Pipe (ACOOP). If anything needs to be included in an SMR protected area, it is the ACOOP and Aliso Creek. Allow me to clarify.

The last known creek and tide pool research (2006) indicates a constant high creek and runoff toxicity (the major cause of tide pool and near shore depletion). I, too, believe that water pollution and human trampling, illegal take and other tide pool abuses are probably almost equal culprits in our tide pool and undersea life demise. How do we address these areas most effectively, using "protection" methods without losing all of our beach rights and privileges as well?

Ken Frank originally approved Toni Iseman's plan for the full seven and a half miles of uninterrupted reserve with the outfall plan included, then declared "mea culpa" when Elizabeth Pearson brought up the need to omit the ACOOP due to the possibility of heavy fines. Well Ken, I believe that you may have been right all along if, in fact, any SMR plan is to be adopted.

Of note: 1) ACOOP carries 25 million gallons/ day of secondary treated wastewater. It has a stand-alone NPDES permit (#R9-2006-0055) issued by the San Diego Regional Board (Cal/ EPA). Laguna would not be responsible for said major fines because it would be the sole responsibility of S.O.C.W.A. (South Orange County Wastewater Authority), of which Laguna Beach is only one of 10 members. By excluding the outfall pipe, we could actually be protecting pollution offenders instead of our "Blue Belt." 2) If we continue to allow polluted runoff and lack of enforcement upstream, then we actually should be heavily fined, as we would then be allowing continuance of non-compliance.

Perhaps Aliso Creek, too, needs to lie "fallow." At the very least, diversions (controversial and outdated) should be disallowed for five years. This would include the Super Project reclaimed water "cleanup," which could kill off everything in both the creek and the very areas we are trying to protect merely by questionable and very possibly unfavorable sediment transport. Our creek and our Blue Belt cannot afford to be an untested science experiment. Rather, let's move forward and consider how to implement advanced waste treatment (tertiary) treatment, which is a third and finer cleansing of the water. Joanne Sutch Laguna Beach