MAILBAG:

In 2000, the Rhine Channel of Newport Bay was listed as a toxic hotspot by the Regional Water Board, and it continues to this day to be a threat to the entire bay ecosystem.

In response to the listing, Orange County Coastkeeper hired MBC environmental in 2001 to collect and analyze three sediment core samples from the bay. The results from these samples showed pollution so serious that the state funded O.C. Coastkeeper to do a larger study of the entire channel.

In 2005, O.C. Coastkeeper completed a full study of the sediment contamination in the channel. That study included a sonar survey of the large debris in the channel, an engineering study of the bulkhead, and a full 3-D map of the contamination in the sediment along with three potential alternatives for the removal and disposal of the contaminated sediment.

We have studied the extent of the contamination; now it must be removed. We applaud the city of Newport Beach for its recent action to retain a firm to prepare a cost-benefit and risk analysis of disposal options. This is an important step to remove the contaminated sediment from the harbor. One of the options being evaluated is disposal of the contaminates in Long Beach Harbor.

This is a good opportunity to leverage resources to clean up our harbor while saving the city money. O.C. Coastkeeper encourages the city to move forward with the cleanup of the Rhine Channel.

GARRY BROWN

Executive Director

Orange County Coastkeeper

Hoping the Pilot can correct its course

There’s little to debate in Newport-Mesa.

Or so it would seem, judging by the nature of citizen opinions the Daily Pilot is publishing of late.

Letters about national issues are supplanting letters about Newport-Mesa issues. Within the last week, the Pilot published three such letters. One criticized the president-elect, another criticized the “media” for spinning (the Daily Pilot wasn’t mentioned, but the Washington Post was), and a third criticized the UAW for its part in Detroit’s auto problems.

Too bad. When the Pilot prints local news and opinion, it fosters discussion of all things local. This is exactly what you must have if you are to have a community.

It’s like neighbors: If they talk over the back fence and over coffee, they form a community. If they don’t talk, they are just people living geographically close.

Granted, there could be other reasons for the paucity of local comment.

It could be part of a grand strategy on the part of the Chicago Tribune/Sam Zell ownership to shift all its papers to the political right (note that the three noted opinions would have felt at home in the Orange County Register).

Or it could be the Pilot’s slimming down to reduce costs. Or, perhaps it’s an advertising-driven effort to bowdlerize conflict out, as its weekly competitor, the Register’s Current, has done.

But the effect is the same: Newport-Mesa loses a vital — perhaps the most vital — catalyst for fostering both a sense of community and an actual community.

The path the Pilot appears to be taking is deeply disturbing. I hope it’s just an aberration, and that we’ll soon get back a vigorous daily opinion page.

TOM EGAN

Costa Mesa