The vocal minority

As a person committed to the environment, I attended the Regional Water Quality Control Board hearing on Sept. 1

Sitting through the hours of testimony, several things became apparent. A handful of outsiders calling themselves environmentalists will not be satisfied until the community produces zero wastewater output. That’s a difficult feat, considering over 80,000 people live and work here.

Also evident was the board’s bias toward this vocal minority while seemingly ignoring the dozens of community members who gave up their day to render testimony, many of them expressing concerns for the negligible gains and high costs of the board staff proposals would ensure if adopted.

True environmentalists believe in taking proven, stepped approaches toward improving conditions that endure. There are many incremental steps that can be taken that will improve conditions in the Malibu Creek watershed, over time. Shutting off all flow from the Tapia treatment facility would not only be costly but will produce no benefit; in fact, it could prove harmful to an endangered species.

The only constructive ideas I heard at the hearing came from the community and the water district. If the environmental activists at the hearing would stop shouting and start listening, we may make some progress. Eric R. Haupt Agoura Hills