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Carlsbad desalination plant virtually approved by regional board

Posted by: Maven on April 9, 2009 at 7:22 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board on Wednesday all but approved an ocean-water desalination plant proposed for Carlsbad’s coastline, but said it will give the project a final green light at a later meeting.

The decision brings Poseidon Resources to the brink of financing and building its $300 million plant on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, six years after it began working its way through a labyrinthine permitting process. The decision also essentially ended a debate over whether Poseidon had under-calculated the number of fish that would be killed by the desalination process.

Poseidon Senior Vice President Peter MacLaggan said the project will go out to bid next month and begin construction by the end of the year. Poseidon plans to begin delivering water in 2011. The board’s decision “moves us one step closer to getting under construction and being able to supply San Diego County with a critically needed supply of water,” MacLaggan said.

Meeting in San Diego, the regional board said it will not increase the developer’s proposal to create 55.4 acres of new wetland acres to compensate for fish and other marine life that will be killed in the plant.

However, it accepted a staff proposal to increase the monitoring of the new wetland to assure it generates new life, and to try to match that with the fish the new plant will kill.

Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

Read Poseidon’s media statement by clicking here; more coverage from the North County Times by clicking here.

April 9, 2009 · Filed Under Desalination

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