The Surfrider Foundation’s argument that that California Coastal Commission acted illegally when it failed to “require Poseidon to reduce the amount of fish and marine organisms that would be killed in the desalination process” were rejected today in San Diego Superior Court today, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Judge Judith Hayes issued a tentative ruling rejecting arguments by Surfrider Foundation and the Planning and Conservation League that the California Coastal Commission misapplied state law when it gave Poseidon Resources a coastal development permit to build the plant. . . . Marco Gonzalez, the attorney for Surfrider and the league, said the groups are unhappy with the ruling and believe the court misunderstood some facts. . . “In particular, a large part of the prospective ruling is based on the perception that the project was previously approved by the Regional Board,” Gonzalez said.
One more hurdle out of the way for the for Poseidon Resources and the desalination plant.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
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It is unfortunate that this project has been greeted with such intense support and blind will. Poseidon proved itself unable to complete a desalination plant in Tampa Bay. As the Tampa Bay Water website indicates, even after Poseidon’s contractors and partners went bankrupt twice, and taxpayers (via Tampa Bay Water) had to buy out the project from Poseidon, over five years of engineering problems due directly to the amount of fish killed in the intake process crippled the plant, producing only 1/5th of the water the plant was supposed to.
Do we want real solutions to our water supply problems in San Diego? We live in a desert. We all need to be responsible for our water use – get rid of our lawns in favor of native plant species, get rid of our sprinkler systems, or upgrade to sprinklers with weather monitoring technology and take advantage of refunds for doing so. Fix our broken pipes. The cities need to do what San Elijo JPA does and recycle our wastewater. Once all this is done, then we look to desalination, and only through underwater intake pipes, not massive open ocean intakes as will be the case for Carlsbad Desal. Do good for ourselves and our children, don’t do well for European investors looking to cash in on our drought.
Tell Marco Gonzalez of Coast Law Group that the City of Carlsbad when they approved the plant said when the power plant went forward with Cooling Towers instead of salt water intake to cool their plant they would TAKE another look and make Poisiden reapply for the permits as a stand along plant. Don’t hold your breath on that one. You can walk down any street in CBD and see daily massive run off from lawns, which they don’t care one iota about – I know I’ve called and talked to them. Does it seem odd to anyone else that north county farmers are being driven out of business while water runs down the gutters?
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