This is just one post in the Desalination Category

Lawsuits against Poseidon desal facility are ‘foolish and wasteful obstructionism’, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 8, 2008 at 12:03 am

From the North County Times Community Forum, this commentary written by Robert L. Simmons, the former chief trial counsel of the San Diego Sierra Club:

On the heels of the California Coastal Commission’s approval of the Carlsbad Desalination Project, opponents of seawater desalination are making a desperate, last-ditch effort to derail the project by filing a lawsuit yet again. It is an all-too-common tactic of certain radical elements of the environmental movement to abuse the legal process by filing endless frivolous lawsuits trying to stop beneficial projects they oppose.

But when it comes to assaults on this Carlsbad project, it is time for those of us with long roots in the environmental movement to deplore this foolish and wasteful obstructionism and question whose interests these few people are serving.

The Carlsbad Desalination Project has undergone considerable expert scrutiny —- and rightfully so. A water supply project of this magnitude must be turned upside down and inside out to ensure that the environment and public interests are being protected. This project has secured a favorable certified environmental impact report and permits from the California Department of Health Services, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Coastal Commission.

Throughout the past decade, this project has withstood multiple lawsuits and regulatory agency appeals by the same few opponents who now refuse to accept the Coastal Commission’s decision that this facility will protect the environment and is, therefore, consistent with the Coastal Act.

By filing another hopeless lawsuit, these non-expert activists blindly ignore the years of research and study by scientific experts that have been relied upon by every permitting and regulatory agency that has approved this project.

Read the rest of this commentary in the North County Times Community Forum by clicking here.

February 8, 2008 · Filed Under Desalination, Poseidon's Carlsbad Plant