Del Kahan -- Community Commentary

Recently, we have noted the rather proper concern with the insidious

pollution of the beaches in the Huntington and Newport beach regions. We

now read of official concern about surface runoff from inland and the

in-depth studies of aged plumbing systems which appear to be responsible

for contaminating the ocean adjacent to these attractive cities. It

appears that draconian measures are being seriously considered to ensure

that nary a cigarette butt will ever sully the sanctified waters.

More recently, however, I have read two articles about the action by

Bob Caustin -- leader of the meritorious Defend the Bay organization --

to file a lawsuit against the Irvine Ranch Water District to halt its

nefarious plans to actually start filling the San Joaquin reservoir with

treated sewage.

This prospect reflects the wishy-washy attitude of the state water

quality board toward the attempts of the Irvine Ranch Water District (a

private enterprise, by the way) to dump its treated sewage in the Back

Bay. The guys on the white horses have been scrapping with those bandits

for years in an attempt to preserve some level of sanity in the

protection of our basic resources.

There are many of us who don’t care if the Irvine Ranch Water District

“treats” its sewage with Chanel No. 5.

It is still sewage, and it does not belong in the Back Bay. In this

day of preoccupation with even minuscule evidence of contamination along

the beaches, why do we find that the servants of the people are still

mollycoddling the evil elements of darkness with respect to the Back Bay?

Are we seeing more evidence of the kind of intellectual integrity

which has led to the electrical power debacle which is now faced by the

residents of the great state of California?

* DEL KAHAN is a Newport Beach resident.