Environmental Press # 122

Subj: OOG: OC Register Letter Today. Responses Needed
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 6:53:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Jon V3
To: Jon V3
Dear OOG:

Today's Register contained a letter from former OCSD Chairman Norm Eckenrode of Placentia. His letter is pasted below. Time to write letters to the Register defending the OCSD's decision to give up the waiver and go to full secondary requirements. A sample letter is below. Address to: letters@ocregister.com. Be sure to include your name, address, phone number. Thanks. Jan Vandersloot (949) 548-6326

Sample Letter:

To: letters@ocregister.com

Subject: Secondary Sewage Treatment Letter, 9-23-02

Body of email:

 

  

To The Editor,

The letter by former Orange County Sanitation District Chairman Norm Eckenrode is not quite correct (Register, 9-22-02, "Secondary-treatment costs will have impact on businesses"). Eighty percent of the costs to treat sewage is paid by residential customers. Only twenty percent is paid by business. Moreover, business can take cost saving measures such as pretreatment at the business site to reduce its flow to the sanitation district. These well established methods will be cheaper in the long run for businesses and reduce the burden on the sanitation district, therefore helping to achieve less ocean pollution. The Orange County Sanitation District Board of Directors did the right thing on July 17, 2002, in voting to end the sewage waiver and increase its level of sewage treatment. I thank and commend the OCSD Board in making this courage decision that will benefit our present and future generations.

Sincerely,

Name
Address
Phone Number

Letter By Norm Eckenrode:

Secondary-treatment costs will have impact on businesses

Brian Brady's defense of the majority vote for full secondary treatment by the Orange County Sanitation District at a cost of around $300 million needs further scrutiny ["Sewage decision wisely weighed risks of inaction." Sept. 15].

This bare majority decision of 13 to 12 was basically an anti-business, anti-taxpayer cave-in to the environmental community.

Over the course of six months, the OCSD spent $5 million to study the impact the OCSD's offshore sewage plume has on Orange County beaches. The majority vote went against the scientific evidence. The study pointed to other problems such as urban runoff, Huntington Beach's infrastructure, the Talbert Marsh and/or upstream polluters.

One thing Brady conveniently omits is who pays for all this. It is true that single-family residence tax bills will go up around $30 a year, but businesses will bear the brunt of this financial calamity. Over half of OCSD revenues come from businesses. To use a couple of examples worth noting: Disneyland's cost will increase from $300,000 to just over $1,000,000 per year; Kimberly Clark's will rise from $400,000 to $750,000 a year.

It is not residential taxpayers who will bear this outrageous decision, it will be our businesses. They in turn will pass these costs on to consumers. OCSD's reputation is not one of inaction. When Huntington Beach incurred closing of its beaches in 1999, OCSD diverted 12 storm drain lines into sanitation district lines. Almost immediately a 75 percent reduction in bacteria was obtained on the beaches - another persuasive reason to address urban runoff.

Norman Z. Eckenrode
Placentia
Mr. Eckenrode is a City Council member in Placentia and is on the board of directors of the Orange County Sanitation District.

Back to T.O.C. 2