I served 16 years as an elected representative from Grover Beach. During that time, I served many years as Grover City/Grover Beach’s representative to the Air Pollution Control District board.

I was there when Larry Allen made his plea to get out from under the control of the county, which the board agreed to do. The result was that the APCD became its own entity without cost and wage controls from the county. The budget and individual wages have soared.

The APCD’s only source of income is from fines and permit fees. Over the years, the APCD has expanded beyond air pollution to now include climate change and fairly recently to much smaller particulates in the air — all to expand its otherwise shrinking role.

Its budget is projected to fall many hundreds of thousands of dollars short over the next few years, so APCD is frantically looking for new sources of revenue. In addition, one of their major revenue sources, the Morro Bay power plant, is scheduled to close in less than two years.

APCD needs a new revenue source! What better place to get new and unlimited revenue than the state OHV fund. All of this hoopla over the State Parks and Recreation Department ignoring the poor APCD needs to have a closer look. That is what the state is trying to do.

The APCD does not want further studies or review. Most rational people would welcome more information and data unless they fear it will dispute their one and only internal study.