Cleaning up the mess

By Merritt Lori McKeon, Esq.

An Action Plan for cleaning our local environmental problems.

Aliso Creek empties its pollution into Aliso Beach, making that beach one of the dirtiest in the nation. We must take action, and yet our current leaders have passed the buck.

It will take leadership to bring the federal, state, county and local cities to the bargaining table to fix what is clearly broken. We need new sewage treatment plants - the old ones are too small and out of date.

We need to treat our "run-off" water so it does not flow untreated into the creek. Yet diverting that drain water into the sewage treatment plants will simply overwhelm the sewage treatment plants and - you guessed it - cause overflow probems of raw sewage into the creek and into the ocean.

My grandfather was the President of the Sierra Club in the 1930's, and he is an inspiration to me and my work on this campaign. I pledge to take the solutions (we all pay for part of fixing the problem, thus spreading the cost) and insist that Chris Cox (or our democratic elected congressman) and the Board of Supervisors and the cities along the creek come sit down at the table and work together to fix the problem.

Sewage is hardly a "sexy political issue" but to a beach loving beach girl like me, it's a key issue. I hope the voters care as much as I do. We need to protect our beaches!