Orange County Sewage Discharge To The Ocean: I Can't Get This Out of My Head

The Laguna Beach area has provided me with some of my life's fondest memories. It is a coastline where surfers, bodyboarders and other recreational ocean users have experienced the magic of an extraoridinary coastal region in Southern California. Aliso Beach as far back as I can remember has had a pollution problem. Why do we accept sewage being pumped to the ocean? Your kids are swimming in it!!! I have swam in it. Precious sea life lives in it and people consume that sea life as food. We need to wake up. We are actively killing ourselves. In December of 2010 and in a stretch where there had not been any rain for a full 72 hours, the lifeguard was telling parents to keep their kids out of the water due to sewage. There is always a contaminated ocean water sign up at the beach and we sit back and do nothing. Several months previously to that, I was told at Tenth Street Beach in Laguna by a lifeguard not to paddle out and that it was polluted. I asked how my friend had been in the water the day before and the lifeguard said the city, state and county was lacking funds to regularly test the water. Translation: We never know when the water is polluted and it may be that is is regularly polluted.

Here is where I get a little sickened. 2009 Census estimates the orange county population at just over 3 million people. Average bowel movements are 1-2 times per day for people. That is up to 6 million tirds a day that must be processed and we send it to the ocean at what we are led to believe cured levels. When the ocean smells and recreational ocean users are getting sick, something is wrong. It has gone on and on and on in Laguna. There must be a better way. I don't want to get sick doing something I love.