It is Mr. Racano (“Deja poo,” Nov. 29) that should apologize to Ms. Stedjee and the hundreds of grassroots people who have worked hard, spent precious time and money to bring a rational replacement for the absurdly expensive and illogical proposed sewer treatment plant that will drive residents from their homes.
Ms. Stedjee’s opinion took issue with the Shedder’s specious and sarcastic exaggeration: “The city of Morro Bay has been trying to get a new wastewater reclamation facility built because apparently it’s not cool to let raw sewage run into the Pacific Ocean” (“Trouble right here in Morro Bay,” Nov. 15).
Most thinking persons would have taken that statement for what it was. Mr. Racano appears to have taken it literally, in opposition to Ms. Stedjee’s rebuttal, as an opportunity for a self-aggrandizing lecture on his past (and laudable) efforts in Southern California; however it misses Ms. Stedjee’s point.
Ms. Stedjee was trying to refute one aspect of the misinformation and propaganda that the city has based its justification for a project that is so complex, expensive, unproven, and disastrous to the city’s finances, residents, and many businesses when better, less costly options were summarily dismissed.
It seems the Shedder has drunk the city’s toxic wine.
The tenor of the Shedder’s opinion was entirely sarcastic, demeaning Morro Bay citizen “white retirees” as whining, but wealthy, selfish hedonistic misers balking at paying a measly 41 bucks to clean up everyone’s ocean. In reality, the $41 is on top of five years of rate increases that will result in an average monthly minimum bill of $191.
And that estimate comes before any shovel has broken the ground!
I have great respect and appreciation for Mr. Racano’s work for the voiceless inhabitants of this planet, that is why I am shocked and incensed at his vehement public attack on Ms. Stedjee, who does not want raw or any form of sewage in the ocean any more than Mr. Racano does.
He unwittingly has aided and abetted the proponents of the proposed sewer project, which will only benefit the Tri-W Corporation and those who might financially profit from it.
Nancy Bast
Morro Bay
This article appears in Last-Minute Gift Guide.
I presented an idea for a regional plan (A-B-C Plan) several years ago and it was dismissed offhand. A regional plan with a water re-use component would have brought in federal funds to help Los Osos, Morro Bay and Cayucos. While many come from a financial standpoint about the MBWWTP, I come from an ecological standpoint. Bad finances aren’t destroying the planet, bad environmental stewardship is doing that.
I didn’t want to sound mean in my opinion piece, I was just answering a mean letter. And I stand by my position that an ocean outfall is not to be seen as an artificial reef. Try to wrap your heads around this: there are 16,304 wastewater plants in the United States and only two operate with a sewage waiver on the west coast- Morro Bay and San Diego.
Morro Bay, do us a favor, get rid of the waiver. Protect the bay, site your plant away.
*And if you really want to see how bad the situation is in Morro Bay, watch the short film at: http://www.StoptheWaiver.com
Respectfully,
joey racano
Yes, Mr. Racano, as shown in your video, the sewer lines are in terrible shape. Many of us have been working for years to expose how bad that situation is, and to get the City to fix the lines. What you don’t appear to understand is that SEWER LINES ARE NOT THE SAME THING AS A SEWER PLANT.
If you would take the trouble to read the City’s annual plant monitoring reports, you would learn that the plant’s outfall is not harming the marine environment, and you would even see a picture of a colony of marine organisms living and thriving on one of the plant’s ocean outfall ports.
You would also learn that the plant consistently achieves full secondary treatment for all constituents but TSS and BOD, and nearly meets the requirements for those. You would learn, further, that TSS and BOD have been found generally harmless for ocean discharges – which would explain the happy little marine organisms on that outfall port. Read and learn first. Know what you are talking about before you rant.
Meanwhile, how about focusing your energies on pushing the City to fix the sewer lines.
Linda Stedjee
Stop dumping stuff in the ocean! Added filtration is necessary to remove micro-plastics from the sewage plant’s discharge to ocean outfall. Governor Brown recently signed a series of bills authorizing the Ocean Protection Council and Regional Water Quality Control Boards to move toward measurement and management of micro-plastics reaching the ocean. The added filtration is likely to help clean up the outfalls. But, filtered brine (which is re-introduced to the discharge) and biosolids (sludge, which is often spread over land) are likely to contain large amounts of micro-plastics, too. If we can’t separate the filtered plastics through newly developed processes, both may need to be hauled to the landfill.
Recycling water is another added benefit of Tertiary treatment and is vital to protecting our groundwater supplies. Stormwater run-off aside… Remind me again, why do we need ocean outfall?