Officials Grossly Negligent About Mine

In response to “Owners Seek to Expand Illegally Run O.C. Mine” (Jan. 5): Do our county officials have rocks in their heads?

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and John Sibley (chief deputy director of the county Environmental Management Agency) are guilty of gross negligence, if not a lot more. How can a road through a state park, 50 trucks a day, an expansion of area and 10 code violations go unnoticed by these two public servants?

What’s even more incredible is their casual brushoff when asked to explain their inaction. Sibley’s comment that he is giving them “the benefit of the doubt” for now is so lame it’s embarrassing. Come on, for four years? Give me a break! And Riley’s comments to wait for an environmental impact study “to bring all the complicated matters to light” are just as bad. What a cop-out!

What is really galling is that you just know that since the Times article became known, Riley, Sibley and the owners of the mine, along with other insiders, have been huddling to decide who is going to take the fall. Their strategy, no doubt, will be to stall until the quarry is no longer news and then issue permits to allow all of the illegal activity that has been going on for years.

Fifty trucks a day on an illegal dirt road through a state park is such an obscene and obnoxious offense that it can only be assumed that our county officials consider the public so complacent that they can get away with anything.

TOM BARNUM, Laguna Niguel