Talking Shit

The irritating kid in Phantom Menace will be in his 20s before state water-quality officials believe they can curtail urban runoff, and by then, it will have cost billions, they say. There is a multimillion-dollar county/Army Corps of Engineers study to fix Aliso Creek under way currently. They'll have recommendations on solving the problem in another five years.

Supervisor Jim Silva inadvertently provided a sobering insight to begin the Huntington Beach meeting. Hoping to emphasize his longtime interest in the problem, he underscored its apparent insolubility. He recalled that while serving as Huntington Beach's mayor, he stood in the same chambers with then-Assemblyman Gray Davis to discuss ways to stop urban runoff from polluting the ocean.

That was 12 years ago.