DESALINATION PLANTS FIRM ROOTS IN CARLSBAD
Posted: 04/12/09 | Views: 2,652
Surfrider Foundation may have gotten the break they needed to turn the tide in their favor in a fight to derail a Carlsbad-bound desalination plant. Some six years in the making, the plant -- slated to be the nation's largest of its kind -- is a $300 million dollar project spearheaded by Poseidon Resources that will be built where the current waterfront power plant sits. Already given the go ahead from the City of Carlsbad, the California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission, the last hurdle Poseidon needed to clear was to get the okay from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. There was, however, a sticking point -- and a pretty big one at that.
The Board, back in 2006, had already authorized a permit for the project, provided Poseidon put together and draft an impact plan. That plan, however, exposed new question marks, forcing a number of agencies to re-evaluate the merits of the plan and subsequent mitigation. Seems the calculations on the number of fish and other ocean life that would die as a result of the new plant were grossly misrepresented. Enter Surfrider and the Planning and Conservation League who took issue primarily with the Coastal Commission's leniency with Poseidon, demanding that they place more stringent requirements on the company so that it drastically cuts down the estimated number of deaths to fish and other marine species that will likely lose their lives as collateral damage in the wake of this project. They also argued that given new information, mitigation requirements assumed by Poseidon should be increased. Poseidon, as seems to be the case in these type pf matters, is mandated to fulfill a mitigation requirement that calls for them to rehabilitate 55 acres of wetlands.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board did end up unofficially approving the plant on the tentative plan to push through the official permit at a yet to be determined date in May. "Poseidon's experts weren't able to verify the validity of their proposed restoration plan," Surfrider attorney, Marco Gonzalez, said. "The Regional Board reaffirmed our position by refusing to take their word for it, and requiring an accurate future assessment to be verified by real, third-party experts." Still, a pretty sweet trade, right -- a perfectly good natural habitat for a desal plant, a bunch of dead fish and a wetland to be named later.
- Evan Fontaine
The Board, back in 2006, had already authorized a permit for the project, provided Poseidon put together and draft an impact plan. That plan, however, exposed new question marks, forcing a number of agencies to re-evaluate the merits of the plan and subsequent mitigation. Seems the calculations on the number of fish and other ocean life that would die as a result of the new plant were grossly misrepresented. Enter Surfrider and the Planning and Conservation League who took issue primarily with the Coastal Commission's leniency with Poseidon, demanding that they place more stringent requirements on the company so that it drastically cuts down the estimated number of deaths to fish and other marine species that will likely lose their lives as collateral damage in the wake of this project. They also argued that given new information, mitigation requirements assumed by Poseidon should be increased. Poseidon, as seems to be the case in these type pf matters, is mandated to fulfill a mitigation requirement that calls for them to rehabilitate 55 acres of wetlands.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board did end up unofficially approving the plant on the tentative plan to push through the official permit at a yet to be determined date in May. "Poseidon's experts weren't able to verify the validity of their proposed restoration plan," Surfrider attorney, Marco Gonzalez, said. "The Regional Board reaffirmed our position by refusing to take their word for it, and requiring an accurate future assessment to be verified by real, third-party experts." Still, a pretty sweet trade, right -- a perfectly good natural habitat for a desal plant, a bunch of dead fish and a wetland to be named later.
- Evan Fontaine
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