Search: desalination plant

The Surfrider Foundation, fresh off defeating the Trestles Toll Road, continues to battle the proposed Poseidon Resources Inc. desalination plant on our Agua Hedionda Lagoon, according to a post on their blog.

The contentious plan to build a massive ocean desalination on the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad, California has been challenged in court. Surfrider Foundation, as lead plaintiff, claims approval by the Coastal Commission to build the largest ocean desalination facility in the western hemisphere violates California law because it was not designed or located to avoid the unnecessary destruction of marine life.

We fully support and back the Surfrider Foundation in this mission.

[Link: Surfrider Foundation]

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In the April 16, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times, Peter MacLaggan, Senior Vice President of Poseidon Resources Corp., (the company that hopes to put in “the largest and most technologically advanced [desalination plant] in the Western Hemisphere”) in our lagoon has written an Op-ed piece titled From Sea To Tap, as a response to Mindy McIntyre’s Op-Ed of April 10, 2008 titled The SUV of Water.

California’s water supply system is based largely on pumping water from environmentally sensitive watersheds in Northern California and the Colorado River over hundreds of miles to Southern California through an elaborate and costly network of dams, canals and reservoirs. But proven desalination technology now allows us to produce higher-quality water along the coast, where the majority of the state’s population resides, at a comparable cost and without damaging the environmentally sensitive upstream habitats.

No matter what you think about the Carlsbad desalination factory, both of these opinions are good reading.

[Link: LA Times]

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More pleasant hurdles for Poseidon Resources and the proposed desalination plant from the North County Times:

In a recent letter, the control board said it wanted more information about how the plant would minimize harm to fish and the environment —- 21 months after the board awarded the plant a discharge permit.

In November, the California Coastal Commission awarded the plant a permit, on the condition that its backers, Poseidon Resources Inc., answer more questions about the same subjects.

Environmental groups last week immediately said the control board’s action proved environmental worries were valid, and that agencies were moving too quickly to conditionally approve the plant.

“It’s absurd to us that any agency could pre-approve a project of this magnitude without having this information already tied down,” said Marco Gonzalez, an environmental lawyer active in the Surfrider Foundation, which has sued to overturn the commission’s permit approval.

Seems like none of the agencies wanted to be the one to put their foot down. They all offered conditional approvals, and now it’s looking like Poseidon is having a rough time meeting the conditions.

[Link: North County Times]

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The Sierra Club California Coastal program director Mark Massara says that Poseidon Resources will likely be challenged in court before they can build the desalination plant, according to KPBS.org.

I’d say it’s a virtual certainty given the massive unaddressed questions and information inadequacies that are still associated with the project.”

Through all of this we’ve got one question: what is the ocean around warm waters going to be like with water that is twice as salty as it should be? What will that do to the lobsters? What will it do to what they eat? Anyone have any answers?

[Link: KPBS.org]

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In a classic case of legalese the California Coastal Commission took roll and voted on a motion regarding Poseidon Resource’s Carlsbad desalination plant at 9:06 PM tonight. It passed 9 to 3. That means the desalination plant proposal has been approved, however, there are still many details to work out and be approved by the Coastal Commission before construction can start.

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It weighs in at 88 pages, but the Costal Commission staff report on the proposed Poseidon Resource desalination plant should be read by everyone who is interested in future of Agua Hedionda Lagoon or ocean life near Warm Waters. The report is very straight forward on why the project is a bad idea:

The proposed project represents a non-allowable use of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, one of 19 coastal estuaries in which permitted uses are limited to very minor incidental public facilities, restorative measures, and nature study. Further, the project would require ongoing dredging of the lagoon, which would adversely affect water quality and habitat. . . .The project would cause significant adverse impacts to marine life and water quality in Agua Hedionda and in nearshore ocean waters. The entrainment caused by the project’s use of an open-water intake within Agua Hedionda would result in a loss of productivity in the lagoon equal to that produced in no less than 37 acres of wetland and open water habitat. The project’s discharge into coastal waters of its waste stream at levels of salinity higher than the natural variability of these waters would cause adverse effects to marine organisms in an area ranging from about eight to over 40 acres of benthic habitat.

The Costal Commission’s November meeting at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel at 1433 Camino Del Rio South begins on November 14, 2007 with the desalination plant discussion scheduled for November 15 (it’s number seven on the agenda).

While the staff report clearly suggests a “No” vote, most political pressure seems to bearing down in the opposite direction. In fact, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institutes auqaman Donald Kent believes the plant will actually be good for the lagoon, according to an editorial in the North County Times.

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