SLO City Council to get scoop on dredging Laguna Lake

Half-a-bouquet of bulrushes goes to the San Luis Obispo City Council for tackling the Laguna Lake sedimentation problem. On Tuesday, the council will be asked to authorize staff to seek proposals from consultants interested in providing various dredging options for the nearly dry lake.

It makes sense to investigate this now, when dredging might be easier on account of the dry conditions. (We say “might” because a wet dredging project may be able to excavate deeper, because of the type of soil in the lake bottom.) A good first step is to find out the options and the costs. The council will get the other half of the bouquet when dredging begins.

Wildlife, Harbor Terrace both win

We toss a bouquet of organic, non-GMO olive branches to the Sierra Club for dropping its appeal of the Harbor Terrace project at Port San Luis.

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved the development, but the Sierra Club appealed to the California Coastal Commission, though not for the usual reasons such as traffic or noise or loss of views. No, the Sierra Club objected that the additional campsites, RV spaces and cabins would result in increased use of the fish cleaning station at nearby Port San Luis Pier. Fish cleaning stations can mean trouble for wildlife — particularly pelicans — that feast on and sometimes fight over the spiny fish carcasses discarded by fishermen.

The port is among the public agencies taking steps to make fish cleaning stations safer for marine life by installing screens and taking other precautions. We’re glad to see the Sierra Club recognize that.

Drink coke, exercise, stay healthy?

Hey, Coke! You’re the real thing, all right. Real high in sugar and empty calories and hot air, that is. According to the Coca-Cola website, a 12-ounce can of regular Coke contains 39 grams of sugar. Cherry Coke has 42 grams. By comparison, a serving of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey contains 28 grams of sugar.

So why are we picking on Coca-Cola? Because, as recently reported by The New York Times, it’s funding research that’s communicating this message: “To maintain a healthy weight, get more exercise and worry less about cutting calories.” To promote that argument, it’s also supporting a new nonprofit, the Global Energy Balance Network.

Yet the notion that exercise can counteract the ill effects of poor diet flies in the face of what many other health experts advise.

Consider this statement from pediatric professor Aaron E. Carroll, in The New York Times:

“A 2011 meta-analysis, a study of studies, looked at the relationship between physical activity and fat mass in children, and found that being active is probably not the key determinant in whether a child is at an unhealthy weight. In the adult population, interventional studies have difficulty showing that a physically active person is less likely to gain excess weight than a sedentary person.”

Sure, exercise is important, but so is diet. To suggest otherwise is extremely dishonest and reeks of old tobacco company tactics that tried to persuade consumers that smoking was actually good for them.

Coca-Cola gets bashed with a six-pack of brickbats.

Airport heads in the right direction

San Luis Obispo County earns a high-altitude bouquet and a case of complimentary, in-flight peanuts for moving forward with a new passenger terminal at the regional airport.

The terminal will cost an estimated $35.4 million, but 90 percent of that will be covered by grants from the Federal Aviation Administration; the county will be responsible for only $3.5 million. Work is expected to begin in October.

The project is the culmination of 17 years of work involving many county employees and elected officials. We won’t attempt to name them all, but please know that your work will be appreciated by scores of air travelers.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 4:45 AM with the headline "SLO City Council to get scoop on dredging Laguna Lake."