🚀 go-pugleaf

Surfrider Foundation/San Diego Board member Helge Weissig gets 
some ink! (Who says hanging around courtrooms doesn't pay?)

He was quoted in a recent article about the lawsuit filed by 
the Surfrider Foundation vs. the city of San Diego. Here's the 
article, written by Marty Graham, which appeared in the San 
Diego Commerce February 7:

After two sessions of contentious give-and-take in a lawsuit 
over city sewage dumping and how it will affect the coast, 
Superior Court Judge Robert O'Neill took the matter-- and the 
accompanying stack of 10 feet of paper he described to the 
lawyers as "the acronym soup you served me"-- under submission 
last Tuesday (January 30).

In the case, Surfrider Foundation vs. City of San Diego 
(690027), the foundation is seeking an order that the city must 
study the effect of pumping a mix of its own sewage and Mexican 
sewage into the ocean. The foundation contends that an ocean 
gyre-- a powerful circular current-- not considered by the 
existing environmental impact report will swirl the swill back 
up on the beach. The city asserts it will not. 

[Note-- the city did no independent analysis of this gyre, 
choosing instead to rely solely on studies performed several 
years ago. Unfortunately, these earlier studies did not examine 
the revised (greater) amounts of sewage which will now be 
treated to only advanced (not secondary) levels. Hence the 
lawsuit, trying to force the city to study the impact of the 
new sewage quantity and quality on local beaches and popular 
surfing spots. Now here's Helge's quote:]

While they wait for Judge O'Neill's ruling, some [Surfrider] 
Foundation members looked for omens to remain optimistic, and 
had to go no further than the judge's name.

"I have a wetsuit named O'Neill," Surfrider member Helge 
Weissig said.
(end of article)

You go, Helge! Let's hope O'Neill can swim through his acronym 
soup and discover  what a smelly mess the city wants to throw 
at the coastline.


Lori Saldana
www.netconnection.com/~lsaldana/
Home of the unauthorized Congressman Bilbray surfing history 
page (look under "Comic Relief")