ENCINITAS — In a late August visit to San Diego, The Postmaster General of the United States Patrick Donahoe described the situation the Postal Service is in as “very fixable,” but only through legislation.

The financial situation that has seen the Postal Service lose billions due to flattening first class mail volume with the advent of online bill paying over the past 10 years.

“We have lost about 60 percent of our single piece volume — mail in the blue mailboxes — in the past 10 years,” said Donahoe. “That equates to 30 billion pieces, and if you put it in terms of a 49-cent stamp, it’s $14.5 billion in yearly revenue that’s disappeared.”

And then there was the 2006 government mandate that required the mail service to prefund $5.5 billion a year into a retirement health benefits fund for future retirees.

The Postal Service has defaulted on making those payments in the past, and will default again this month, said Donahoe. Right now the Postal Service is on the hook for about $21 billion — with a default on this month’s payment that will make the amount they’ve defaulted on $26 billion.

But Donahoe is certain that by changing the law in integrating Medicare and requiring office personnel management to provide a lower cost health care system for retirees, something not within the powers of the Postmaster General, will fix the problems of the Postal Service.

And when asked how quickly that problem would be fixed if those changes were implemented: “Immediately,” he said.

“Our problem is a lack of legislation (that’s) left us standing there holding the bag. We need to address health care, we need to address six day to five day delivery, we need to address some pricing issues that need to be put to rest,” Donahoe said.

In terms of what happens with any legislation passing, Donahoe, who said he was probably one of the more optimistic people you’d meet, didn’t express any optimism that that would get done.

“I’ve been in this job for four years, I’ve been pressing both the House and the Senate and they don’t have anything to show for it.”

While the Postal Service continues to lose money, the latest figures released show.

Postmaster General says USPS issues ‘very fixable’