Environmental victories should be celebrated

Environmentalists often don’t get the credit they deserve. And

likewise, they sometimes don’t know when they have won.

Think about it, if it weren’t for environmentalists, what would

our smog and air quality be like today?

How many oil rigs do you think would be sitting off the local

shores and how many wetlands would be decimated?

Wetlands like the Upper Newport Bay and, just up the coast, the

Bolsa Chica would instead be boat marinas -- not wildlife preserves

-- if it weren’t for the hard-won battles of local environmentalists.

Now, we can add to their accomplishments the cleanliness of our

precious beaches and waters.

Environmentalists fought hard to clamp down on the sewage disposal

practices of the Orange County Sanitation District. The district for

years enjoyed the benefits of a federal waiver that allowed it to

only partially treat the 240 million gallons of sewage it pumps four

miles out to sea each day.

Environmentalists and scientists and those concerned with water

quality, believing that sewage was seeping back to shore, pressed for

an end to the waiver. The war of words got heated at times, but those

of the ecological mind had a winning message.

The sanitation district heard that message.

Indeed, not only is the sanitation district now going to give the

sewage full treatment, it has undertaken a chlorine bleach program to

further clean the sewage water.

A big victory, right?

You wouldn’t know it by listening to some environmentalists who

still seem to need, or want, a whipping boy to further their cause.

They say that chlorine is not as safe as we think, that it creates

“bad compounds.”

Chlorine has been used to treat sewage and water supplies for

years. The 18,000 to 20,000 gallons a day of high-powered bleach is a

small drop in the 240-million gallon sewage bucket and an even

smaller drop in the ocean. Still, it should clean up 90% of the

viruses in the sewage, sanitation officials say.

So, while it certainly is not the ultimate solution, it does help

with one major cause: It cleans the water much more than it is being

cleaned now.

And isn’t that what we all want? Isn’t that the endgame of this,

to get cleaner water along our beaches? That is a major

accomplishment.

So we say it’s time to cease and desist for now. It’s time to

declare victory, however small, in this fight for clean water and

savor this milestone in environmental history.

It’s time to give credit where it is due, both to the

environmental camp and to sanitation district officials, who finally

got the message.

To both, we salute your efforts in making our beaches the cleanest

they can be.