The Surfrider Foundation is opposed to the desalination plant that Poseidon Resources wants to put in Carlsbadistan’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon. In an email sent out to members today they said the following:
If Poseidon Resources is granted a final permit on April 8th for the Carlsbad Desalination plant, it will require ENORMOUS AMOUNTS of energy to make new water. If upgraded, the North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would require LESS THAN HALF THE AMOUNT of energy to make new water of the same quality – and dramatically reduce discharge of partially treated sewage to our local marine environment. . . Carlsbad Desalination would kill millions of fish and larvae each day. North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would kill zero fish and larvae per day.
The Surfrider Foundation is also encouraging everyone to read and sign Surfrider and Coastkeeper’s petition to help prevent Poseidon from building such a wasteful and destructive desalination plant.
Follow the jump for all the details.If Poseidon Resources is granted a final permit on April 8th for the Carlsbad Desalination plant, it will require ENORMOUS AMOUNTS of energy to make new water. If upgraded, the North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would require LESS THAN HALF THE AMOUNT of energy to make new water of the same quality – and dramatically reduce discharge of partially treated sewage to our local marine environment.
Carlsbad Desalination would kill millions of fish and larvae each day. North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would kill zero fish and larvae per day.
Under conditions in the draft permit, the Carlsbad Desalination plant will require Poseidon, and consequently ratepayers, to pay millions of dollars in an attempt to” replace” the damage done to the marine ecosystem – but that restoration project has yet to be even planned (much less considered for adequacy). North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would require $0 for unplanned, unproven and UNNECESSARY restoration projects. Drinking Water Recycling would actually result in cleaner, safer and more reliable drinking water than San Diego current has – and benefits the marine environment rather than destroying precious marine life.
Click Here to read and sign Surfrider and Coastkeeper’s petition to help prevent Poseidon from building such a wasteful and destructive desalination plant.
This is not just a local issue, it is likely to be precedent setting across the State of California and citizens should demand responsible ocean desalination and only used as a last resort. Proposals to desalinate ocean water to provide drinking water are springing up all over California – with more than 20 proposals from Marin to San Diego. If regulators and citizens do not demand that these facilities are built with the best location, design, and intake technologies – desalination will unnecessarily kill marine life and exacerbate climate change.
The Surfrider Foundation and our partners in the environmental community advocate for establishing proper standards for these facilities in the permitting process for the first desal project in Carlsbad. The San Diego Regional Water Quality Board will be making a very important decision in early April regarding requirements in the design of an ocean desalination facility — which will likely set precedent statewide.
Surfrider and our partners are not strictly opposed to ocean desalination. Unfortunately, the proposal in Carlsbad represents significant deficiencies in design, location and choice of technology. The Carlsbad proposal, created by Poseidon Resources, does not minimize the intake and mortality of marine life.
Please sign this petition to tell the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board to apply the strictest legal standards to restore and protect our coast, ocean and marine life.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board meeting is set for Wednesday, April 8, at 9:00 a.m. at the Regional Board Meeting Room, 9174 Sky Park Court in San Diego. We encourage you to attend, please email Jared to rsvp: jared@surfriderSD.org
Full Petition Text:
Dear Chairman Wright, Board Members, SWRCB Liaison Ms. Spivey-Weber and Executive Director Robertus:
We are writing as Californians across the State who are dedicated to restoring and protecting our coast and ocean for this and future generations.
We are opposed to the current permit conditions that allow the co-location of the Poseidon-Carlsbad Ocean Desalination Facility at the Encina Power Station.
– The current permit would allow the intake and mortality of more marine life than is currently being destroyed by the Encina Power Station?s once-through cooling (OTC) system;
– The current design capacity of the Poseidon-Carlsbad desalination facility would facilitate the continued intake and mortality of marine life beyond the date when the Encina Power Station either upgrades its generators and abandons the OTC system, or ceases operation;
– The current permit conditions rely on unproven and, as yet undefined, plans to restore marine life in contradiction of the clear language in California’s Porter-Cologne Act to minimize marine life intake and mortality in the first place. Sub-seafloor intake systems are a proven alternative to minimize marine life intake and mortality currently attributable to open seawater intakes;
– The Poseidon-Carlsbad intake permit should set the highest standard for enforcement of California?s laws to restore and protect marine life mortality. This is just the first of many potential desalination proposals coast-wide. The State Water Resources Control Board and San Diego Regional Board should send a clear message to future project proponents that ocean desalination facilities should be designed to accommodate technology that minimizes the intake and mortality of marine life. Designing massive ocean desalination facilities and then “shoe-horning” in sub-standard intake systems is not sound public policy.
We are not opposed to ocean desalination. However, we oppose the current permit language as it does not meet the clear standards of California’s law to protect our precious marine life.
We strongly urge you to either:
1) Deny the current proposal and insist on a facility capacity design, location and intake technology that minimizes marine life mortality in the first place (e.g., sub-seafloor intakes); OR
2) Limit the interim operation of the CDP to only the water being withdrawn by the Encina Power Station, AND
– Insert a provision to automatically re-open the permit when the current cooling water intake is abandoned or consistently falls below the required 304 mgd – with specific language to ensure the construction and use of sub-seafloor intakes.
For more info on ocean desalination and our Know Your H2O campaign Click Here, Click Here and check out our Know Your H2O Blog.
bill@surfridersd.org • SurfriderSD
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