To the editor: The editorial about the slovenly management of the South Coast Air Quality Management District regarding port pollution was a strong argument for better leadership. But to accuse the governing board of personally escaping the air quality problem by holding meetings in the desert undercuts the editorial’s message by ignoring the full scope of the problem.
The Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa, where the board members had their retreat, is in the middle of the Coachella Valley, where air quality alerts are almost as common as the leaf-blowing spew that helps create them. Much of last week the area was buffeted by wind composed of hazardous effluent, dust and sand so thick I couldn’t see the mountains across the valley from my back patio. The board members no more enjoyed “crisp views of the San Jacinto Mountains” than I did.
Yes, the ports’ harm to proximate areas must be addressed with dispatch — as with air quality in every region of the SCAQMD. We’re all suffering from weak regulators.
Ellen Alperstein, Palm Desert
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To the editor: In 2000, The Times reported that California would start warning residents in certain areas about diesel exhaust causing cancer. Surrounded by the diesel powered ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, local community groups in San Pedro immediately called upon the facilities to clean up their diesel pollution.
Twenty-four years and many Times articles later, the diesel pollution continues. Citizens find it difficult to understand why agencies that exist to serve the public allow the public to continue being poisoned.
Will we be having this conversation 24 years from today? It seems quite likely.
Noel Park, Rancho Palos Verdes
