26-01-2025
In letters: Court-ordered releases from Lopez Lake threaten South County water supply
I'm writing to alert South County residents to an issue that threatens our water supply and will increase water rates. In August 2024, four environmental groups sued San Luis Obispo County over Lopez Dam operations, citing harm to steelhead and other protected species.
In December, the U.S. District Court ruled in their favor, issuing a preliminary injunction requiring the county to increase downstream releases by 50% into Arroyo Grande Creek. These releases began Jan. 15, and are beyond the safe yield for the Lopez Lake watershed.
Opinion
Had this release schedule been in place during past droughts, Lopez Lake would have been drained in 2016 and 2021-2022. With less than 5 inches of rainfall since July and ongoing La Niña conditions, this judgment endangers Lopez Lake, the South County's primary water source. For over 60 years, cities and CSDs including Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, Oceano and Avila Beach have collaborated with SLO County and agricultural stakeholders to manage water supplies while protecting species.
This lawsuit undermines those efforts, diverting critical resources and leaving our water supply subject to outside control. I urge residents to demand that local leaders appeal this decision. Our water supply depends on it!
Brian Talley
Arroyo Grande
San Luis Obispo County needs to prioritize preparing for disasters and reducing risks. This means we all need to work together —government and the public—to take action. We should focus on things like creating safer spaces in fire-prone areas and meeting the state's climate goals. Without strong leadership, we're missing out on important resources, such as California grants for affordable housing and sustainable communities.
The science is simple: A warmer planet means more evaporation, more water in the air, causing longer droughts and heavier rainstorms. SLO County is already feeling the effects of extreme weather. We've seen the Cerro Alto Fire, the Arroyo Grande Creek flood, and storm surges that damaged the Cayucos Pier. These disasters affect everything — public health, agriculture, and even finding affordable home insurance. Fixing roads and buildings is important, but we also need to reduce what's causing these problems: greenhouse gas emissions.
Other counties, like Sonoma and Santa Barbara, are doing a better job. They've started useful projects to reduce risks and cut emissions, and they've gotten big grants from the state to help. With $10 billion in new state funds available soon, tell the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 4 to prioritize climate resilience.
Don Maruska, Los Osos
Erin Pearse, Los Osos
Eric Veium, San Luis Obispo
I strenuously object to the recent article by Hannah Poukich. The headline stated that ever since a Morro Bay coffee shop closed, 'nearby stores are struggling to survive.' Coalesce Bookstore, right next door to the former coffee shop, is thriving now and has been thriving in Morro Bay since 1973. I've been getting my books there for years and I've never been in the store when there weren't several customers among the shelves or at the counter.
Carol McPhee Norton
San Luis Obispo
Who among those of us born in America can say that our citizenship is NOT by birthright?
Even the original members of the Pilgrim families were not American when they got here, but their descendants sure are. My English paternal grandfather entered Canada as a teenager on a cattle boat. He decided to follow the model of his ancestors and train horses for livery. He walked across the Canadian border in the 1800s not to gain citizenship, but because the wild horses he wrangled, trained and traded didn't recognize a border.
He met and married his wife, whose German parents had immigrated from Danzig/Gdansk in the Polish corridor. The family first settled in Montana, then moved west. There is no paperwork to prove that they were ever naturalized as Americans, and I don't know that they ever were.
Nonetheless, their 12 children, their 26 grandchildren (my generation), our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren are unquestionably American based upon the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, NOT because we are white English-speakers.
Carol Nelson-Selby
San Luis Obispo
In a recent headline, an official high in the police union stated that pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters, or should I say insurrectionists, sends a dangerous message. First, people accused of and convicted of harming people who were doing their jobs are absolved of their crimes.
What would he expect?
Our bully of a president pardoned bullies like himself. The dangerous message is not just that the bully's behavior will be tolerated, but also that unlawful and uncivil behavior by an elected felon will become the norm in this administration. We are all in for a long and perilous siege of our democracy.
Fred Raleigh
Templeton
Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services has directed all agency leaders to halt all external communications 'until they can be reviewed and approved by a presidential appointee.'
This means, presumably, that HHS might not be able to publish anything that says that bleach injections and Ivermectin are not effective against COVID or that vaccines don't cause autism because that information could be politically inconvenient.
Project 2025 tells us that Trump's government should 'downsize' and 'reshape' federal agencies that do research on climate change ( e.g., the National Climate Assessment), likely because such research could call into question the wisdom of drilling for more oil and gas.
One hallmark of authoritarian regimes is that they suppress all information that doesn't promote the government's agenda. In Russia, the Ukraine war is a 'special military operation,' not a war, and the goal of the 'operation' is to 'de-Nazify' Ukraine although its leader is a Jew. Saying otherwise can land you in jail.
It is said that people voted for Trump because they thought groceries were too expensive. Sadly, groceries aren't getting any cheaper and the collateral damage arising from that decision will be with us for decades to come.
Chris Toews
San Luis Obispo
