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Surfrider and Coastkeeper are unnecessarily blocking Poseidon plant, commentary says; project is needed to reduce San Diego’s dependence on imported water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 8, 2009 at 7:14 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune, this commentary by Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District and a member of the San Diego County Water Authority. He begins by laying out the factors that have gotten the state of California, and more particularly, San Diego – into this water crisis, and notes that San Diego imports 85% of it’s water supply:

Three decades of legislative inaction and staunch environmental opposition have helped get California in this fix. If San Diego is going to survive, we’re going to have to continue supporting statewide solutions to reduce our dependence on imported water. All segments of our society must change our consumptive habits and push to develop new, local water supplies in addition to those recently secured by the San Diego County Water Authority (i.e., Central Valley and IID Transfer as well as the All-American/Coachella Canal lining projects).

Unfortunately, it seems the necessary collaborative effort does not exist today.

Last year, in partnership with Poseidon Resources, nine public water agencies known as the San Diego Desal Partners permitted the first large-scale seawater desalination plant in the state. The Carlsbad desalination plant would be able to provide 300,000 San Diegans with drinking water daily – about 10 percent of the county’s supply. These agencies along with Poseidon and the Water Authority are working diligently to make this project a reality.

This essential local water supply project could have been operational today if not for the actions of two special interest groups – Surfrider Foundation and Coastkeeper. Over the past five years, these organizations have been unable to provide rational scientific or factual environmental evidence against the project, and consequently every single permitting and regulatory agency dismissed their claims and approved the desalination plant.

Undeterred, these groups then chose to file six legal challenges against the project. Three cases have been dismissed, and three against the state agencies that approved the project – California Coastal Commission, State Lands Commission and San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board – are pending in state Superior Court. As with the first three, these lawsuits have little chance of success, but the litigants hope they can delay the timely groundbreaking of the desalination plant, risking 2,100 shovel-ready construction jobs and $170 million in economic stimulus that the county desperately needs during this recession.

Read the full text of this commentary in the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

February 8, 2009 · Filed Under Poseidon's Carlsbad Plant

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