Mailbag - July 4, 2002
Helicopters are a nuisance -- not an aid
While the Independent had a really nice article about the new police
helicopter fleet in Huntington Beach (“A higher power,” June 27), I feel,
in the interest of good journalism, perhaps you should report on the
other side of the story.
Huntington Beach is the eighth safest city in the United States,
according to a recent report. Perhaps it is due to the helicopter fleet,
perhaps not.
I moved into the city last August, glad to be in a very safe
community. As a person who lives near Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica
Street, in the new Summerlane development, I have to question why this
city needs three helicopters.
In particular, I have to wonder why every evening between 10:30 and
11:30 p.m a helicopter is flying low over my neighborhood. Correction, I
know why it is flying low, the fog bank is rolling in.
We all question why the helicopter is making rounds every night for
about 15 minutes, that late at night.
For a two-minute run across town, why are they hovering 15 to 20
minutes over this residential area? We aren’t getting any disturbances
from the Naval Weapons Center, the beach is a mile away and Bolsa Chica
Preserve is between us and the beach, the area largely residential.
People are in bed, their children safely tucked in, and the windows
and roofs are shaking, the noise in our second-floor bedroom is enough to
wake my nearly deaf grandmother. We have double-paned windows that reduce
noise and it wakes us up. What about all the people in the nearby
neighborhoods who don’t have that luxury? People have to get up early in
the morning to goto work. Even for the Long Beach Airport there is a
noise curfew. Those helicopters are definitely not quiet, contrary to
your article.
How about an article asking the police to restrict the helicopter
flights over residential areas to emergencies only after 9 p.m. so the
residents can get some well deserved sleep?
MARY FAIRFIELD
Huntington Beach
The EPA should demand full sewage treatment
The Environmental Protection Agency should demand that the Orange
County Sanitation District drop the waiver and go to full secondary
treatment of their sewage. Chlorination works better on full secondary as
does, ultra violate light, micro-filtration and all the advanced
treatment which will be coming down the pike.
The sanitation district must comply with the Clean Water Act, which
means chlorination with the waiver is not an alternative.
Chlorination is a bandage approach to the serious problem we have with
the pollution in the ocean.
Full secondary removes 99.5% of the bacteria.
What the sanitation district is doing now with their advanced primary
is removing 50% of the bacteria.
This should no longer be permitted.
The EPA should have them disinfect, preferably using ultra violate
light, until they get to full secondary. Full secondary may take three
years if they start now.
EILEEN MURPHY
Huntington Beach
Of course the Orange County Sanitation District must be accountable
for keeping the ocean clean. Even a common alley cat buries its mess. Who
are the people who oppose financing the sewage treatment?
Surely not the businesses Downtown who depend on beach dollars. Surely
not the families whose kids surf, swim participate in junior guards all
summer. Surely not those of us who enjoy a fish dinner and certainly not
any person who flushes a toilet in Orange County.
We are all responsible for our sewage and whatever it costs we must
clean it up now. If it isn’t the primary source of beach pollution now,
it soon will be. Must we wait for a tsunami of waste to hit us in the
face?
DOROTHY VAN EIMEREN
Huntington Beach
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