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Poseidon leaves many questions unanswered regarding proposed Huntington Beach plant

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 7, 2008 at 6:07 am

From the O.C. Voice:

An environmental scientist for the California Coastal Commission says that the cost of water to be produced by a desalination plant approved by the city of Huntington Beach has been greatly underestimated by the developer and that proposed mitigation measures for its impact on ocean marine life are inadequate.

The project was approved by the H.B. City Council (including current councilmembers Don Hansen, Keith Bohr, Cathy Green and Gil Coerper) in Feb. 2006.

The remarks were part of a letter to Poseidon Resources Inc., the multi-national corporate water corporation that will oversee construction of the plant that would suck in 100 million gallons of ocean water every day and convert it into 50 million gallons of drinking water. Poseidon plans to co-locate with the AES power generating plant on Newland Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway to take cost-saving advantage of the plant’s “once-through cooling” system to gather the ocean water it needs for conversion.

Once-through cooling systems are also used by 20 other antiquated power plants along the California coast and suck in 17 billion gallons of seawater each year, killing virtually all the marine organisms passing through their membranes, a significant contributor to the 60 percent decline in marine species, according to a 2005 report by the California Energy Commission.

A recent court ruling, as well as legislative trends and a resolution by the California State Lands Commission, are bringing once-through cooling to a close, sooner or later. “It’s the end of once-through cooling systems in the U.S.”, Surfrider Foundation desalination expert Joe Geever told the Voice in September, adding, “AES is fighting the changes tooth and nail.”

One of the main questions left inadequately answered is how much the water will actually cost. Poseidon has said the desalinated water would cost $800 per acre-foot, but this is based on unrealistic power costs and subsidies that may never materialize, critics say. They believe the water could end up costing as much as $1400 to $1500 per acre-foot.

Read the full text of this post on the O.C. Voice blog by clicking here.

May 7, 2008 · Filed Under Poseidon's Huntington Beach

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