Letters to The Editor

SUBMISSIONS NEEDED FOR SAN CLEMENTE HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY TIME CAPSULE!

LAURIE GOOCH, San Clemente

On March 19, the San Clemente Historical Society celebrates a Golden Anniversary. Join in on the festivities by filling a time capsule.

What do you want San Clemente residents in 2073 to know about our town? Write down your favorite memories. Take photographs of or draw your quintessential spots.

Then send them to us: San Clemente Historical Society, PO Box 283, San Clemente, CA 92672-0283.

More details to follow about the party at Casa Romantica. Save the date!

Response To Water Desalination

JIM SMITH, San Clemente

I was on board with Mr. McKernan about desalination, but he lost me with the criticism of farmers.

Good news, though, as there are more runner spaces, and you can still sign up via the SCDBA website. Each runner will receive the very popular Shamrock Run multi-cotton grab a bite to eat—what a fantastic downtown Saturday.

With a little research, he would see that water use and pricing are complicated and ultimately managed by the

The Downtown Business Buzz

BY KELLY LECLAIR

T-shirt, a goodie bag from our sponsors, and a chipped timing bib. Results are posted once all runners have crossed the finish line. Moss will announce the awards to top finishers for women’s 5K and 10K, men’s 5K and 10K, and kids’ 5K and 10K.

Come cheer on the racers and feel the positive energy of a well-organized event. This year, you can spectate along Avenida Del Mar and down near the pier.

After the race, stick around downtown and enjoy the SC Village Art Faire—located on the community center lawns— where dozens of local artists display their unique items from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Run the race, support local businesses,

Prospective runners can sign up at scdba.org/shamrockrun. Yes, we have more spots this year, but we still anticipate the event to sell out. Race time is 7 a.m. Packet pickup takes place the morning of, as well as the day before, at HH Cotton’s from 4-6 p.m.

This year, I’m a gold sponsor through LeClair Real Estate. A special thanks also goes to fellow gold sponsor Chris Aitken of Aitken Aitken Cohn Trial Lawyers

Our very affordable $150 bronze sponsorships are a great way to get exposure for your brand, as you’ll have the opportunity to insert a flyer or item in more than 350 goodie bags, plus lots more. Businesses wanting to get involved and provide swag for our goodie bags, please visit scdba.org/shamrockrun or email info@scdba.org.

Also, mark your calendar for the 27th annual San Clemente Car Show on June 10. More info can be found at sccarshow.com.

If you’d like to join the SCDBA and learn more about our promotions and

State Water Resources Control Board.

Like most western states, California “water laws” provide the highest priority to the earliest water users. This is known as the “Doctrine of Prior Appropriation,” sometimes called “first in time, first in right.”

As far as California government fixing things, they had a choice years ago. They picked spending $100 billion on a light rail system over a fraction of that for rainwater harvesting (RWH). Go figure.

ANOTHER RESPONSE TO WATER DESALINATION STEVE KNOBLOCK, San Clemente mayor pro tem

I am writing in response to Steffen McKernan’s letter claiming that ocean water desalination is bad because agriculture uses too much water. Desalination is the right idea whose time has come.

The Central Valley of California is the agricultural breadbasket of California, our nation and much of the world. Many thousands of acres of highly productive food-growing land are currently being furloughed because of the water shortages plaguing California.

The Doheny Desalination Project will provide much of our local water requirements and will help free up imported water for essential food production.

Despite what many naysayers think, current desalination technology is not environmentally damaging. It is cost-effective when comparable to the rates charged by the Metropolitan Water District and our local districts.

It is environmentally safe and will not hurt marine fish or plant life, because the ocean water is being pulled through shafts drilled through the sand under the ocean floor. The salt that is extracted from the ocean water is returned to the ocean at the same saline level as normal ocean water, because it is properly diluted with treated wastewater and placed several miles out to sea via the existing discharge pipeline.

Further, the amounts of energy used for ocean water filtering and reverse osmosis treatment are reasonable, considering the fact that we will have an unlimited source of water, immune from the precarious levels of Sierra snowfall, severe droughts and other natural disasters.

The Doheny Desalination Water Project has intelligently addressed all the environmental and technical issues. This is why the California Coastal Commission, well-known for environmental care and sensitivity, unanimously approved this important project as a bulwark against the certainty of future droughts.

Desalination is a common-sense solution to the 400-mile-long, problem-prone water canal system, built a century ago using technology dating back to the ancient Egyptians.

Building the Doheny Desalination Project will prevent our children or grandchildren from one day having to look at each other, ashen-faced, bemoaning: “Why on Earth did they not build it?”

Join SC Times for Beachside events, email membership@scdba.org. SC

Chat on Friday, Feb. 3, at 8 a.m. Beachside Chat is a spirited, town hall forum on community issues every Friday. Tom Marshall and Larry Culbertson of the San Clemente Historical Society will lead this week’s discussion. The chat will be held at Dorothy Visser Senior Center, 117 Avenida Victoria. All are welcome.

Kelly LeClair sits on San Clemente Downtown Business Association’s governing board and is the owner of LeClair Real Estate at Pacific Sotheby’s.

PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to provide our readers with a wide variety of opinions from our community, the SC Times provides Guest Opinion opportunities in which selected columnists’ opinions are shared. The opinions expressed in these columns are entirely those of the columnist alone and do not reflect those of the SC Times or Picket Fence Media. If you would like to respond to this column, please email us at editorial@sanclementetimes.com.

CORRECTIONS: On page 21 of the San Clemente Times’ Jan. 26 edition, the Triton Report reported on the San Clemente High girls basketball team defeating San Juan Hills High in a pivotal league game. The story incorrectly reported the outcome of the Tritons’ Jan. 24 game against Aliso Niguel High. The Wolverines defeated the Tritons, 62-57, at Aliso Niguel High.

On page 6 of the same issue, an article about the death of community volunteer Hank Snyder inaccurately reported the date of his passing, as well as misstated Wayne Eggleston’s involvement with local organizations. Hank died on Dec. 20. Eggleston is the executive director of the Heritage of San Clemente Foundation.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

San Clemente Times reserves the right to edit reader-submitted letters for length and is not responsible for the claims made or information written by the writers. Have something you’d like to say? Email your letter to sraymundo@picketfencemedia.com no later than 8 a.m. on Monday morning. Limit your letters to 350 words or less. Please send with your valid email, phone number and address for verification by staff. Your address and phone number will not be published.