City should consider options to Poseidon For...

City should consider options to Poseidon

For what reason are we contemplating a desalination plant on our

beautiful beach? We can recycle our groundwater into bottled water

purity without endangering our coastline, polluting our air or

killing our coastal creature population.

Please consider other alternatives! I realize we need the money

right now. But consider the long term effects of this Poseidon

dinosaur on future generations.

MEG WATSON

Huntington Beach

What planet is the Planning Commission on? I lived in Huntington

Beach for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like the proposed

Poseidon scheme. This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to get

around recent legislation that require developers to disclose where

the water to new homes will come from!

If this plant gets built, developers who want to build in Orange

County (including the beautiful and now endangered Trabuco Oaks area)

will be able to build out what’s left of our remaining open space.

More houses mean more people, traffic, crowding, pollution crime and

an overall decline in our quality of life.

This company has already given us false data in their

environmental report. They’ve shown they can’t be truthful with the

community and this is just the beginning: Imagine what will happen in

the months and years to come if we allow this project to proceed.

Everyone reading this remembers the toll road debacle and the 91

Freeway scam -- both of which ended up costing county residents

dearly while the developers laughed all the way to the bank. Let’s

hope this time, our public administrators do the right thing.

PATRICIA BERNSTEIN

Newport Beach

Stop the industrialization of our neighborhood.

The Poseidon project is a losing proposition for South Huntington

Beach residents. Numerous urban studies have shown that such

industrial projects do not end up benefiting residents. Just ask

homeowners in Inglewood about LAX, or Northridge about Rocketdyne.

Unless we want Huntington Beach to become the Lomita of Orange

County, it’s time to speak up. First it was Ascon dump in our

backyard, then the storage tanks, then the power plant and then the

sewage treatment facility. Now Poseidon is being considered?

Let some other city foolishly burden its residents with an

unprofitable project. The truth is, Huntington Beach (and Orange

County) makes its money from tourism. People come here to enjoy clean

beaches and an attractive coastline. Not smokestacks, briny water,

dead fish and sewage plumes.

BRIAN GRAY

Huntington Beach

I totally agree with the subject of the Sounding Off article of

Aug. 21 written by John F. Scott. The commission should be addressing

ways to mitigate pollution rather than add to it. How about working

to have AES meet the most stringent pollution controls and rescind

Poseidon approval.

CURTIS STELLEY

Huntington Beach

Desalination editorial is total nonsense

I don’t usually write because it does me no good, but this is too

important.

I read your article in the Independent titled “Surf City has done

its part.” You say nothing but NIMBY. I am a registered chemical

engineer who lives in Huntington Beach and I have as much real

hands-on design and start-up water treatment experience as anyone in

America. My professional experience goes back to an industrial

desalination plant at Reynolds Aluminum Hamburg in 1970. I have

experience with flash distillation, membrane technologies of all

types and lime softening and on and on.

My professional experience means basic design information

gathering, nuts and bolts design, engineering, procurement,

construction and start-up and operator training.

Some of the large units that I have worked on say a billion

gallons of seawater desalination a day at King Faisal City near

Dhahran Saudi Arabia are real. Fiji, a 650-million gallon per day

unit, guess what! I have had lots of feed back with no, I say no,

negative affect on the sea life. None.

Yes, we have a power plant down my street -- Newland Street --

letting off white atmospheric steam not black smoke. The South Coast

Air Quality Management District would be down on AES in a microsecond

if there were a black smoke flue.

Yes, there is a sanitary water treatment plant on Pacific Coast

Highway and another one in Fountain Valley on Ellis Avenue. The basic

sanitary engineering processes need to be enhanced, this is

in-progress.

Your two column article is pure bunk. You are hysterical.

Don’t they let dumb boys park their junky cars on our city streets

dripping or pouring engine oil onto the newly repaved streets? These

are all real examples of contamination. They go on. Progress, God

knows that membrane technology or reverse osmosis is not cutting edge

chemical engineering, so let them build this plant. Any nickel that

adds to our tax base is good.

B.RICHARD SACKS

Huntington Beach

Wait until you need the police copter

Here’s some trivia for those who “whine” about the police

helicopter. In June, the helicopter responded to more than 800 calls

for service and was first on scene 98% of the time.

I also have this suggestion for those of you who think the

helicopter should not fly around all the time and who think it is too

noisy:

If you ever have to call 911 because someone is trying to break

into your home, your car, or is somehow threatening to harm you or

your family, be sure to tell the dispatcher not to send the

helicopter (even if it would probably reach you in a matter of

seconds, where it may take a patrol car several minutes to come to

your aid). You see, if the helicopter comes to help you, it will fly

around in circles and might be shining its light on the person who is

creating a problem for you.

The helicopter, however, will then be creating a problem for your

neighbors, i.e. disturbing them with noise and lights while chasing

the “bad guy” away from you and your home and protecting you. So

don’t be the victim who brings this noise problem (helicopter) into

your neighborhood, just wait patiently for the patrol car to arrive.

However, if the patrol car comes with its siren on, there’s another

problem. Stay safe (you just might because the helicopter is

patrolling for you).

SHIRLEY DAVIS

Huntington Beach

Quit control issues and save money

In response to the editor’s call to “pay attention” and “don’t be

afraid to make suggestions,” I will agree with another writer who

questioned; why hasn’t the City Council requested a bid for service

from the Orange County Fire Department?

Many other cities have done so and found it much more economical

than insisting on having their own fire department. As I recall,

several months ago our firemen asked the council to do so but the

council refused, citing its desire to maintain local control. The

question now is, could HBTV, the sister city program and 37 employee

jobs be saved if the council had acted responsibly and proactively?

With more budget cuts on the horizon, it’s time for the council to

get over its issues of power and control and start doing what makes

fiscal sense, regionalizing services and a good place to start is

with the Fire Department.

CHARLES JONES

Huntington Beach

More flights than they are letting on

Long Beach Airport officials who spoke at the July 31 meeting at

the Huntington Beach Central Library failed to mention the issue

concerning commuter flights.

It is my understanding, per my conversation with a Long Beach

Airport official at the April meeting held in Huntington Beach, that

commuter flights are defined as planes that can seat up to 70 people.

These planes can be jets. There are approximately 22 commuter slots

available at the airport. Thus far, no airline has elected to use

these slots. These commuter flights are not part of the noise

ordinance equation.

Therefore, in addition to the soon to be 41 daily commercial jets

flying over Huntington Beach, there is the possibility of an

additional 22 jets flying over the city regardless of the results of

what some people refer to as the “noise bucket”.

RANDY MATUSOFF

Huntington Beach

Long Beach Airport noise is no big deal

What’s a little airplane noise? I am a North Huntington Beach

homeowner directly under the flight path of Long Beach Airport and I

have no noise problem. I purchased my home knowing full well where

the flight paths were. If people want to complain, try going after

the Harley Davidson or motorized scooters that go up and down my

street. The new aircraft Jet-Blue flies are nothing compared to the

old DC-8’s and B727 that only recently stopped flying over. The only

rare time I hear an aircraft at night is because I’m already awake.

We in Huntington Beach have nothing to complain about when it

comes to aircraft. Forty-one commercial daily flights at Long Beach

Airport are nothing compared to 24 hours of Los Angeles

International’s 1,500 flights. It is my understanding that Long Beach

Airport is grand-fathered in with 41 commercial flights unless

somebody like this Rae Gabelich and her noise complainers bring

attention to the fact that Long Beach Airport can handle lots more.

She is unreasonably suspicious of the Long Beach City Council for

allowing airport upgrades, but maybe it’s like our Huntington Beach

mall that looked so disgraceful for years and was losing money

because no one wanted to shop there. How many more jobs will be

chased away and millions of dollars lost on Long Beach Airport noise

abatement because of these groups? Do we in Huntington Beach need to

waste our time and money on this?

STEVEN HUDSON

Huntington Beach

Officer Wersching was just doing his job

We believe that Officer [Mark] Wersching was doing the job to his

best abilities. Just because you are well trained doesn’t mean that

you have to wait to see if you get shot before you fire your weapon.

I doubt that any other officer would have done any better than he

did.

ED AND DONNA COOK

Huntington Beach

Council and city attorney cost us

It is a shame that the City Council and the city attorney of

Huntington Beach are so slow in learning. This inability is costing

the property owners dearly. First we overpaid in property taxes to

fund enhanced retirement benefits and now we will have to pay for the

next 20 years for the bonds to repay us. To add insult to injury the

City Council voted to reinstate a tax to foot the bill for

[employees]their more than generous benefits, at the “good” advice of

our city attorney, which may also be unconstitutional.

Do we really have to sit back and watch this kind of spending?

It is nice that Councilwomen Debbie Cook and Pam Julien Houchen

suggested property owners forgo the refunds. Maybe the City Council

and the city employees should forgo some of their more than generous

benefits, and adjust to the real world. Employees in the private

sector receive nowhere near such benefits. This should be considered

when benefits are negotiated come the end of this year.

KAROLA AIGNER

Huntington Beach

Wersching is a huge liability and should go

Huntington Beach Police Department Officer Wersching is a huge

liability to the citizens and Police Department. He has cost the city

approximately $3 million in the last few months.

Pay him off and get rid of him. He is not only an embarrassment to

all of us but will surely do something terrible again. He is no good,

get rid of him.

PETER MURRAY

Huntington Beach