City Ignores Drought Issues
Letter to the Editor

As some of you are aware, the city has reworked some of the slope area on Marguerite Parkway – basically for about 400 feet on the east side of Marguerite Parkway south of Trabuco Road. For years, this slope like others within our city has been ignored.

Yesterday, I reviewed the area in-depth. I would suggest you all take a look at the project as it is nearing completion.

Quite honestly, I am very disappointed that the city continues to fail to recognize and respond to the present and potential drought problem we in Southern California are facing. 

The City of Mission Viejo failed to seize the opportunity to replant this slope with more drought-tolerant plantings and to implement an irrigation system to reduce water waste and runoff. The reworked and replanted slope areas only in a very limited way use drought-tolerant plants, and virtually none of the irrigation system was reworked to employ soaker hoses and other water-saving techniques.

For example:

• Once again, Sycamore trees were planted along Marguerite Parkway. The Sycamore is a Riparian tree, meaning it is found on river bottoms and along creeks in California. The Sycamore requires annual precipitation of 30 - 80 inches – hardly a drought-tolerant tree. In addition, the Sycamore is deciduous (loses its leaves in the fall) and is a messy tree to maintain. Many better-suited trees could have been selected that are much more environmentally friendly.
   
• The choice of the Halls Honeysuckle as a ground cover is problematic at best.  While it tolerates heat to some extent, it requires more water than some of the better choices that could be made for ground cover. Halls Honeysuckle, in reality, looks good only in the spring, then with heat and lack of proper maintenance tends to turn yellow and thin out. Of course, it is a standard used by the city – but most HOAs have abandoned the planting of this thirsty plant.
   
• The city irrigation is the same old conventional spray system. These systems, emitting a spray into the air – lose a significant amount of moisture to the air – rather than placing the water directly to the plants’ root zones as is done with a (Neta Film) soaker-hose system.  Soaker hoses significantly reduce or eliminate runoff and contribute to a significant water-use reduction – while maintaining healthier plants.

Note: Mission Viejo Environmental Association, the city’s largest HOA, has installed more than 10,000 feet of Neta Film Soaker Hose to avoid this problem in our association. [Re: http://missionviejodispatch.com/?p=16763 , Irrigation Damages Streets.] This not only stops the runoff but saves an average 63 percent on water application.

In addition, MVEA has a drought-tolerant display at Antela and Boltana that utilizes plants that do not need the extensive watering required by grass and other plants now employed by the city.

These are examples the city could emulate. I could enumerate other mistakes and oversights, but I don't want to bore you with details. This example is just another reason the city needs new leadership in the Public Works Department – ref. Keith Rattay.

Joe Holtzman
Mission Viejo