BIRD DOO-DOO AND GOVERNMENT

BIRD DOO-DOO AND GOVERNMENT The Los Angeles Times reports that La Jolla, a ritzy coastal San Diego community (Mitt Romney has a house there), is having trouble dealing with the problem of waste from birds and marine mammals, which is stinking up the rocky shore: The La Jolla Village Merchants Assn. gathered more than 1,000 signatures demanding an immediate solution. But immediate is not in the governmental lexicon when it comes to issues involving the ocean and wildlife. To wash down the rocks would require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The city, probably the full City Council, would need to endorse a specific wash-down proposal--but that, according to [local councilman Sherri] Lightner's staff, would mean submitting the issue to an application process that could take at least two years, given the backlog at the water board. And even if the water board approved the application, the issue would then proceed to the [California] Coastal Commission, an agency not known for its speed.