Some say Back Bay project no big deal

The U.S. is running trillions and trillions of dollars in deficits.

Dredging the bay is not a high priority for expenditure. We need to

cut spending, and this is one thing that could get cut in times of

belt-tightening.

ANN WATT

Santa Ana Heights

If they don’t start dredging within the next year or so, it’s

going to be just a meadow out there. I see it constantly filling up.

We’re going to lose that Upper Back Bay along with all the

disadvantages such as algae and odor and so forth.

DICK TUCKER

Newport Beach

The real question is: How important is our most treasured local

natural resource? The Back Bay is extremely important to our

community. We can’t put off something as important as keeping it

dredged and keeping it in the condition it needs to be in.

TIM REAVES

Newport Beach

In a best-case scenario, yes, it would be ideal to have the work

completed. Have water flowing and no silt in the Back Bay. Have it be

a sanctuary, a habitat and park-like setting for residents and

visitors to use. This is not the best-case scenario, especially to

hear that $24 million to $25 million is needed compared to other

needs that are out there in this world.

And I also dispute something that’s in the article -- [that] this

work needs to be done every 20 years to repair the damage. I find

fault with that. I live along the Back Bay, and I have for over 30

years.

And I’ve got to tell you, there seems to be constantly something

going on in the Back Bay to try to repair damage, create a flow area,

to clean up, to make it habitable. It just seems like something is

going on back there. And I dispute the fact that it’s a 20-year

process.

JO CAROL HUNTER

Newport Beach

It just seems to me that to have a moral conscience and to

recognize that so many programs have been cut back, whether they be

for funding of homeless programs, school programs, aid to the

elderly, whether it be for our schools and arts humanities programs

that have been cut back.

I just believe that if you have a conscience, that to again

allocate more money for gunk to be removed from the Back Bay, when on

the other hand you are decreasing money to the facilities that I just

mentioned, your priorities are so askew that something is terribly,

terribly wrong if the general public can’t see that.

CHARLIE HAYNES

Newport Beach

We can’t be more enthused at the thought of trying to dredge this

Back Bay, particularly. Our dock is just about broken up forever, and

we have now lost four docks, leaving only four.

And these are going rapidly.

DAVID AND MARJORIE WHITE

Corona del Mar