State Parks, stop throwing money away. Cancel the Oceano Dunes algae study
The State Parks Off-Highway Vehicle Division must have money to burn.
Otherwise, why would it spend $437,506 of OHV Trust Fund money on a half-baked study of marine plankton?
Here’s the answer: It’s part of the agency’s never-ending crusade to find a scapegoat for the dust pollution drifting downwind from the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
If there is any way to cancel all or part of the contract with researchers at UC San Diego, State Parks should do so immediately.
Multiple studies already have determined off-roading activity at the state park is the cause of air quality problems on the Nipomo Mesa. Also, decades-old photographic evidence shows the type of damage off-roading does to the dunes.
Yet State Parks is still desperately trying to find alternate causes of particulate pollution so high that doctors have advised some of their sick patients to move away from the Mesa.
Phytoplankton — microscopic algae that floats on the surface of the ocean — is just its latest target.
It is true that harmful algae blooms “can cause respiratory distress and illness in people,” according to Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
But there’s no evidence that plankton is making Mesa residents ill. Air monitoring has determined dust particles drifting over the Mesa are from the earth’s crust — elements like silicon, iron, aluminum and potassium — and not biological organisms like algae.
There may be good reasons for a general scientific study of phytoplankton — but not for this purpose. And State Parks should not be funding it.
Spending $437,506 on what the county Air Pollution Control Officer Gary Willey called a “wild goose chase” is beyond wasteful.
Here’s a better description: It’s a disgrace and sham.
It’s also hard to fathom how such an unjustified and costly fishing expedition even comes to be in the first place.
Who are the higher-ups in State Parks who approved this and why did officials appear to have such scant knowledge of the study when they were questioned about it this week at an air quality hearing?
If there is any way to cancel all or part of the contract with researchers at UC San Diego, State Parks should do so immediately.
Because there are far better uses for that kind of money.
Safety, for instance.
Six people died in accidents at the Dunes this year, making it one of the deadliest on record at the state park. The OHV Division could invest more in enforcement and enhanced safety programs.
Or how about fencing the dunes and planting vegetation — measures designed to reduce air emissions and provide relief to downwind residents?
If the agency is really itching to fund a study, it would be better off partnering with the California Department of Public Health on a health study of Nipomo Mesa residents, focusing on respiratory illnesses linked to air pollution.
And please, no more excuses about how difficult it is to conduct health studies. At the very least, health officials should be tracking cases of childhood asthma on the Mesa, to get a better handle on whether the area has a higher incidence in comparison to other parts of the county.
Bottom line: Squandering money on a needless plankton study is worse than a “wild goose chase.”
It’s just another attempt to avoid responsibility for the environmental damage done by dunes riders, while allowing residents to continue to endure very real health problems.
State Parks in general — and the folks who run its off-roading unit in particular — must focus on repairing that damage instead of chasing an alternate reality in which some phantom cause is to blame for ruining the air.
Vulnerable Nipomo Mesa residents aren’t suffering because they’re inhaling tiny ocean creatures. They’re suffering because they’re regularly blasted with fine particles of dust.
It’s way past time that State Parks accepted that.
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 6:09 AM.
