EDITORIAL

In making a surprise decision last week to abort long-standingplans to

build a wider flood control channel beneath Broadway, the City Council

seemingly has pleased a host of people, from environmentalists to

Downtown business owners, who were adamantly against the $10-million

refurbishing.

The environmental groups opposing the plan, including the Surfrider

Foundation, were concerned about the potential for dangerous chemicals to

be washed down the channel to Main Beach and into the ocean. Business

owners had visions of construction-blocked streets keeping customers

away.

Both had legitimate concerns and questions that needed to be addressed

before the work got underway, and the council was correct to protest when

enough information was not already available.

Suddenly reversing their course, council members, despite the loud

protests, had given no indication they would change direction -- the

council has left unanswered two other big questions: Have they lost some

$8.6 million and the donated work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and

the Orange County Flood Control District? And what will happen in the

unlikely event of a major rainstorm?

Not knowing the answer to the first question was one of the reasons

the council had been planning to go ahead with work to ease the flow of

storm water from Beach Street to Main Beach. Having given that money up,

at least for now, council members should be pressing staff in the public

works department to figure out how to renew that funding, and the Corps’s

promise of construction work, or find other sources of money because at

some point the underbelly of Downtown will need improvement.

That need may seem illusionary now, given our record dry season. But

it wasn’t that long ago, 1997, when El Nino rains closed Downtown

businesses and damaged the beach. There is no telling when it could

happen again.

Proof of nature’s unpredictability was all too evident in the smoke

rising from this week’s thankfully small fire in Laguna Canyon. Since the

terrible fire of 1993, the city has been vigilant in its fight to ensure

such a disaster never happen again. Though it is ironic that the fire

apparently was started during work to clear brush that could feed flames,

it is entirely possible that without crews in the canyon, a more

devastating fire would have burned our dry, nearby hills.

City leaders, as well as residents and business owners, should be as

concerned about possible flooding as they are about potential fire.

With last week’s vote halting one solution to the problem, now is the

time for new thought and new action on the city’s flood potential. And

those who were opposed to that plan should work equally hard to find

another means to slow the rush of water.

And for the next year, at least, Laguna Beach resident had better hope

that when it rains, it doesn’t pour.