Water board sued over desalination approval
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 20, 2008 at 6:21 amFrom KPBS in San Diego:
Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The suit charges the board didn’t properly study how a Carlsbad desalination plant would harm marine life. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.
San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation filed the civil lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court.
The lawsuit says the regional water board should have done a detailed analysis of how the desalination plant would affect marine life before conditionally approving a plan by Poseidon Resources to deal with those affects.
More from KPBS by clicking here.
Desalination closer to reality in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 27, 2008 at 12:08 pmFrom Discovery News:
California is closer to hosting the largest desalination plant in the country, but not everybody thinks it’s a good idea.
Some environmental groups remain concerned about the impacts of the plant on the coastal environment, despite attempts to mitigate these concerns by Poseidon Resources of Stamford, Conn., the company that wants to build the plant. The plant would turn seawater into drinking water and provide a drought-proof water supply for about 300,000 people.
Whether or not the plant goes forward may have an impact on similar proposals around the country. There are, for example, an estimated 17 other proposed desalination plants just in California. Interest in desalination is likely to grow as pressure increases on the nation’s water supply, especially in the West.
Late last week the California State Land Commission granted the last remaining permit that Poseidon needed to go ahead with construction of the 50-million-gallon-per-day facility in Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego, which they aim to have running by 2011.
But Marco Gonzalez, an attorney representing the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit environmental group based in Encinitas that focuses on waves and beaches, said Surfrider would continue to work to block the plant’s construction by following up with lawsuits.
“We recognize that desalination is a likely part of our future water supply portfolio,” he told Discovery News. “But our concern is that its time has not yet arrived.”
Read more from Discovery News by clicking here.
Desalination plant should be first of many, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 27, 2008 at 12:06 pmFrom the North County Times, this editorial with praise for the State Lands Commission to grant Poseidon it’s last needed permit:
Water, food and energy are the challenges that await us all as we look at what kind of a world we will leave our children. And our area’s lack of water is self-evident.
Innovative ideas should be welcomed, and converting seawater to fresh drinking water should be embraced within them. Thus we trust any lawsuits will be quickly dispatched.
The lands commission’s action was the right decision at the right time.
All residents should look forward to seeing the Carlsbad facility in full operation; and we hope it is rapidly joined with other similar conversion plants.
Read the full text of this editorial from the North County Times by clicking here.
Posiedon, the biggest desalination plant in W.Hemisphere, clears the last hurdle; hopes to be online by 2011
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 23, 2008 at 8:44 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Poseidon Resources’ proposal to turn ocean water into drinking water at a Carlsbad plant cleared its final permitting hurdle Friday when the California State Lands Commission gave a green light to the project. The commission voted 3-0 in Los Angeles to allow Poseidon to co-lease the Encina Power Station’s ocean intake and outfall, which Poseidon plans to use to draw in and release water. The approval marks the culmination of a 10-year effort by Poseidon to build an ocean-water desalination plant on the grounds of the power station on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad.
Poseidon plans to desalinate 50 million gallons of sea water a day and pipe it to local cities and water districts. Nine agencies have signed up to purchase the plant’s output.
Poseidon, which obtained approval for the plant from the California Coastal Commission two weeks ago, hopes to begin construction next year and produce drinking water by 2011.
From the North County Times:
“The Pacific Ocean has been added to the state’s water supply portfolio,” said Scott Maloni, a vice president of Poseidon, which is based in Stamford, Conn.
Supporters say that is a welcome source of reliable water to the region. Opponents say the plant’s operation would cause massive damage to the adjacent Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Some also say it’s better to extend the water supply by reclaiming and purifying sewage back into drinking water.
The vote amended a lease agreement between the state and landowner Cabrillo Power to allow ocean intake and discharge pipes to be used for desalination. Cabrillo owns the Encina Power Station, the site on which the Poseidon plant is to be built. The intake and discharge pipes sit on state tidelands.
Poseidon will now begin to raise the money to build the plant, Maloni said.
From Reuters News:
Carlsbad is the first of what is expected to be a wave of approvals for desalination plants in California, where about 20 plants are in various stages of planning. “This is a historic day for the state of California,” said Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president for Poseidon Resources, the Connecticut-based company behind the Carlsbad plant.
Poseidon is also developing a plant of a similar size in Huntington Beach to the north. Carlsbad will be twice the size of the current largest U.S. plant, on Tampa Bay in Florida.
California officials have set a goal for desalinated water production by 2030 equal to about 10 times the output of the Carlsbad plant.
California Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said this week the Carlsbad approval was “essential.” “Desalination will probably never be a major portion of the water supply, but it’s going to be a critical part of a portfolio of a reliable supply,” Snow said.
Poseidon hopes to clear the last hurdle today at the State Lands Commission
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 22, 2008 at 5:25 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The California State Lands Commission will hold a hearing today on a Poseidon Resources proposal to build an ocean-water desalination plant in Carlsbad.
The commission, which has jurisdiction over state tidelands, will decide whether to allow Poseidon to co-lease the ocean intake and outfall now used by the Encina Power Station at Agua Hedionda Lagoon.
If the commission approves the lease, Poseidon will have all the permits needed to build the plant, which will turn 50 million gallons a day of ocean water into drinking water.
Read the full text of this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
Coastal Commission decision worth its salt, editorial says
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 21, 2008 at 6:02 amFrom the Desert Dispatch, this editorial:
Californians should be outraged that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared we’re in a drought. Enough fresh water to meet Southern California’s entire annual needs is allowed to wash into San Francisco Bay in a single day. Every day. Divert a day’s worth, and the drought vanishes.
California’s water wars over rights and uses have been waged for years and may be beyond resolution considering the many obstacles and competing interests. How do we mitigate environmental effects? What’s an adverse environmental effect when weighed against human needs? Why should farmers pay less per drop to nourish fruits and nuts than you pay to quench your thirst?
More governmental Band-Aids promise only to further complicate the problem, not solve it. There’s hope, however, if government gets out of the way.
Apparently seized by a fit of common sense, the California Coastal Commission has approved the nation’s largest drinking-water desalination plant, at Agua Hediona Lagoon in Carlsbad, to tap a virtually inexhaustible supply – the Pacific Ocean.
It’s still costly to convert saltwater for human consumption. But technological advances are making it more economical, and drought conditions are making it more attractive as our main sources of potable water become less reliable.
Read more of this editorial from the Desert Dispatch by clicking here.
Coastal Commission approves proposed desalination plant in Carlsbad
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 7, 2008 at 7:45 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
A private company’s proposal to build the nation’s largest drinking water desalination plant at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad cleared its final hurdles yesterday before the California Coastal Commission. The decision came at the conclusion of a 10½-hour hearing in Oceanside punctuated by objections from environmentalists and support from elected officials who stressed the crucial need to increase the region’s water supply.
“We must diversify our region’s water-supply portfolio,” said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “We cannot conserve our way out of the water crisis.”
San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre testified in opposition to the project, arguing that it was the wrong approach to solving the region’s water shortage. “The primary way to gain new water is through reclamation,” Aguirre said, referring to the process by which wastewater is converted back into drinking water.
A frustrated Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis urged the commission to make a speedy decision without adding new requirements “so we can get on with building the damn thing.”
From the Los Angeles Times:
The desalination plant, to be built by the Poseidon Resources Corp. of Stamford, Conn., is designed to produce up to 50 million gallons of fresh water each day, which would be 9% of San Diego County’s usage. Promoters would like to begin construction immediately and have targeted 2011 for completion.
The proposal was backed by seven local mayors but opposed by several environmental groups and San Diego City Atty. Michael Aguirre. Aguirre, at the commission’s meeting in Oceanside, sided with critics who say that the amount of fresh water that would be provided is outweighed by the damage to marine life; he suggested greater use of water reclamation.
The commission tentatively approved the project in November but with 22 conditions involving finding ways to minimize damage to fish and plants and to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the salt-water-to-fresh process. A majority of commissioners agreed, in a series of votes, that the company has satisfied the conditions.
From the North County Times:
“This was a historic decision by the Coastal Commission,” said Scott Maloni, a Poseidon vice president. “This decision moves us one step closer to building the most technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination plant in the country.”
Wednesday’s hearing mainly concerned two plans that Poseidon had submitted to meet commission staff objections to the proposal. The first plan requires Poseidon to offset extra greenhouse gas emissions caused by the energy the plant will consume. The second commits Poseidon to restore wetlands similar to those near the plant, at a location to be later determined.
The commission had given the plant conceptual approval last year, but commission scientists disagreed with Poseidon about the amount of extra greenhouse gas emissions, and asked Poseidon to restore as much as 68 acres of wetlands, up from 42.5 acres in Poseidon’s proposal.
Poseidon said it reserves the right to challenge the staff-imposed changes later, but didn’t oppose them.
After extensive discussion, the commission approved the greenhouse plan on a 10-2 vote. The wetlands plan was approved on a 11-1 vote with the wetlands restoration requirement set at 55.4 acres. In casting the lone no vote on the wetlands plan, Commissioner Sara Wan said details of the restoration plan would not be available for 24 months.
Despite the changes, opponents said the commission violated the law in approving the plant.
Regarding the greenhouse gas plan, this from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Commission staffers said the plant’s energy consumption would add about 90,000 tons of carbon per year. Poseidon intends to reduce that total by using solar energy and adding energy-recovery devices.
In addition, Poseidon argued its carbon debt should be reduced by subtracting the amount of energy Metropolitan Water Department uses to pump 56,000 acre feet of water annually, the amount the desalination plant would produce.
More from a second article in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Poseidon’s plant would employ a technology called reverse osmosis, a process in which seawater is forced by high pressure through a filtering membrane. Initially, the plant will share the seawater intake system currently used to cool the Encina Power Station, which has been operating at the lagoon since the mid-1950s.
However, Encina’s owners intend to phase out the aged power plant and build a new one that would employ air cooling technology that would not require seawater. When the switch occurs, the desalination plant will pump approximately 304 million gallons of seawater daily. A third of that, 100 million gallons daily, will be demineralized to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water.
The rest of the seawater taken from the lagoon will be used to dilute the super-saline residue before it is discharged into the ocean shoreline.
The desalination plant’s intake system will trap and kill an estimated 16 million fish larvae each day and a greater number of plankton, according to a report by commission staffers. In addition, adult fish would be killed each day, including Garibaldi, the state’s fish. None of the species affected is rare or endangered.
The project’s environmental impact report concluded that, compared to the overall abundance of marine life in the ocean, the loss from the plant’s intake system will be insignificant.
Nonetheless, Poseidon is required under the state’s Coastal Act to compensate for the loss of ocean productivity by enhancing marine habitats, including wetlands that serve as nurseries for juvenile fish.
Poseidon had offered to create 37 acres of marine habitat at a cost of approximately $2.8 million, but the commission agreed with its staff that more acreage was necessary. The commission voted to require 55.4 acres of habitat restoration, but will allow Poseidon to accomplish that in two phases. The first 37 acres must be started within two years, with the additional 18.4 acres five years later.
From the AP & San Jose Mercury News:
Pressure has been mounting to find new sources of clean water as a prolonged drought continues across the state and traditional sources of water are becoming more unreliable. More than a dozen other desalination plants are under consideration across the state, including one in Huntington Beach.
The Carlsbad project has drawn ire from some opponents who fear the plant will damage the environment and raise people’s water bills.
Mark Massara, director of Sierra Club’s coastal programs, called the desalination project “a giant step backward” for Californians. He said the ocean water that will be diverted will kill millions of fish to pad Poseidon’s profits. “It allows the privatization of public trust water supplies for public profit and will ultimately make San Diego water ratepayers slaves to the most expensive fresh water ever produced in the United States,” Massara said.
Coastal commission approves Poseidon’s desalination plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 9:22 pmFrom NBC San Diego:
A proposal to remove the salt from millions of gallons of ocean water, and use it for drinking water and irrigation in San Diego County was finalized Wednesday by the state Coastal Commission.
Hundreds packed the meeting at Oceanside City Hall where there were two principal issues on the table: how Poseidon Resources Inc. would curb greenhouse gas emissions; and how they’d make up for the marine life that could be killed in the desalination process. Officials with the company assured the commission they had solved those problems.
“We’re putting in energy-recovery devices and other technology that will lower energy consumption by about one-third,” said Scott Maloni of Poseidon Resources.
Joey Racano of the Ocean Outfall Group said desalination is simply not the answer to California’s water woes. He urged everyone to conserve water and find other sources. Racano said new technology can help, but ocean water should be protected.
Read more and watch a video from NBC San Diego by clicking here.
Poseidon’s desalination plant up for final approval today; links to webcast
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 7:27 amFrom the Associated Press via San Bernardino Sun:
Amid a prolonged statewide drought, California officials are considering whether to give final approval to a company that wants to turn salt-drenched sea water into 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.
In green-lighting the project, the California Coastal Commission, which meets on Wednesday, would go against the advice of its staff, which has long opposed the desalination plant proposed just north of San Diego. If built by Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp., the $300 million plant would be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
More than a dozen other desalination plants are under consideration across California, including one in Huntington Beach in neighboring Orange County, as pressure mounts to find alternative sources of safe drinking water.
Orange County opened the world’s largest water recycling plant last year. Meanwhile, Los Angeles leaders are considering purifying wastewater for use as drinking-water, a process derisively known as “toilet to tap.”
“In the nine months since we got preliminary approval, the governor declared a statewide drought, there’s been a water state of emergency in nine counties in Northern California and the agricultural industry in San Diego has had 30 percent of its water cut,” said Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon Resources. “Things are getting bad. There’s no silver bullet here but we’re also not going to conserve and recycle our way out of this water crisis.”
The coastal commission gave preliminary approval to the project last November, subject to a list of more than 20 conditions, including Poseidon’s plans to make the plant carbon neutral and to provide for wetlands restoration as mitigation.
Read the full text of this article from the AP & the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Update: San Bernardino Sun has pulled the article; however, here is a link to the same article from the Capital Ag Press - click here.
WATCH THE WEBCAST: Click here to visit the California Coastal Commission website. You’ll find links for the webcast with various options in the left-hand column. The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 am.
Local mayors urge Coastal Commission to approve desalination plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 1, 2008 at 6:22 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
A group of seven mayors led by San Diego’s Jerry Sanders held a press conference Thursday to urge the California Coastal Commission to approve a proposed ocean-water desalination plant. Speaking at the office of the California Center for Sustainable Energy in Kearny Mesa, Sanders called the proposal by Poseidon Resources to build a plant in Carlsbad to desalinate 50 million gallons of ocean water a day “a critical project for our region.”
“Seawater desalination will provide a drought-proof water supply,” Sanders said, noting he has declared a water emergency and called on residents to reduce consumption by 20 gallons a day.
More from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
The North County Times adds this:
The mayors said the plant is vital for a secure water supply, especially now that California is hit with a drought and environmentally mandated cutbacks of water imports from Northern California. “This is a must,” Lewis said.
The desalination plant would deliver 50 million gallons a day, or 9 percent of the water consumed in the county.
If all goes well at the Aug. 8 Coastal Commission hearing, the desalination plant is expected to begin production in 2011, said Peter MacLaggan, a senior vice president at Poseidon Resources, the Stamford, Conn.-based company proposing to build the plant. The hearing takes place at 9 a.m. in the Oceanside City Council chambers. Assuming the commission endorses the plans, the final approval needed for construction is from the state Lands Commission, MacLaggan said. That commission is tentatively scheduled to consider the proposal Aug. 22.
“This is a huge milestone for the project,” MacLaggan said of next week’s hearing. “We’re going to complete our permit and entitlement process, which has been under way for five years. That will clear a path for us this fall to close the financing for the project, and move forward next spring with construction.”
The commission is scheduled to consider two plans from Poseidon to compensate for environmental damage caused by the plant, which will occupy 4 acres. One plan is to restore coastal wetlands at another location, probably in North County. The other is to offset greenhouse gas emissions from the plant’s consumption of electricity, so that it has no net effect.
Some environmentalist groups such as the Surfrider Foundation oppose Poseidon’s specific proposals for the desalination project, while not opposing desalination in principle.
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
Desalting water and breaking new ground
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 26, 2008 at 12:10 pmFrom the San Diego Union Tribune, this commentary by Robert Gilleskie, director of Engineering at the California Center for Sustainable Energy, which is an independent, nonprofit in San Diego that facilitates the adoption of energy-efficient technologies and practices:
Recently, Poseidon Resources Inc., the developer of the Carlsbad desalination plant, asked the California Center for Sustainable Energy to review its voluntary Climate Action Plan, which describes its strategy to render the plant carbon-neutral. After thorough, independent review by our energy and climate-change experts, we have concluded that Poseidon’s strategy to render the plant carbon-neutral is sound.
In fact, Poseidon has broken new ground in its proposal; to the best of our knowledge, the plant will be the first major infrastructure project in the state to voluntarily eliminate its net carbon footprint. CCSE believes this project will advance the state’s goals as embodied in AB32, California’s ground-breaking Global Warming Solutions Act.
The overwhelming majority of the emissions associated with the desalination plant are “indirect” emissions; they result from the generation of electricity provided by the local utility. Implementation of Poseidon’s plan will effectively cancel these emissions by incorporating energy-efficient equipment into the plant’s design, installing a solar-power system at the site, revegetating lands in coastal North County, planting trees, and purchasing renewable energy credits.
In addition, the plant will make over 50 million gallons of drinking water a day here in San Diego. It will no longer be necessary to import this amount from Northern California, thus avoiding the energy use and carbon dioxide emissions attendant to pumping this water from distant sources.
Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
Shooting ourselves in the foot: a closer look at Poseidon’s proposed carbon offset proposal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 22, 2008 at 9:14 pmFrom the Voice of San Diego:
San Diego’s water policy — or lack thereof — has a tremendous impact on our environment. According to the California Energy Commission, transporting water throughout the state and to customers requires 19 percent of California’s electricity, consumes 32 percent of the state’s natural gas supplies, and uses 88 million gallons of diesel, contributing significantly to global warming. Transporting surface water supplies from the northern half of the state to Southern California requires 60 times more energy than what is needed to convey water in Northern California, making the development of local supplies an imperative.
However, open-ocean desalination, the technology proposed for the 50 million-gallon-per-day (MGD) Carlsbad Desalination Plant, is the single most energy-intensive water supply option in the region. It requires 47 percent more energy than transporting water from the San Joaquin Delta through the State Water Project, which is currently the most energy-intensive way we get water. Put another way, according to our experts, the CDP will add between 100,000-154,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, to our fragile atmosphere every year, thus exacerbating the impact of our water policy on global warming.
In conditionally approving the CDP, the State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission required Poseidon Resources to develop a Carbon Action Plan (CAP) to ensure the facility is �carbon neutral’ and does not contribute to global warming. Poseidon agreed to embrace this requirement and achieve carbon neutrality. Unfortunately, Poseidon’s CAP veers significantly away from true carbon neutrality. First, the Plan ignores direct impacts from the facility, including construction and truck traffic generated by the CDP. Even with these oversights, Poseidon acknowledges that the facility will discharge 97,165 metric tons of CO2 annually. While less than our estimates, this is still an alarming number.
The vast majority (over two-thirds) of Poseidon’s proposed carbon offsets come from the 67,506 metric tons of CO2 that the company contends will be avoided by the 50 million gallons of water a day that will not have to be transported from the San Joaquin Delta if the CDP is built. There is only open problem with this calculation — nobody actually claims or believes the CDP will reduce the amount of water we get from the Delta.
Read more from the Voice of San Diego by clicking here.
Poseidon submits desalination plans; Coastal Commission to consider project in August
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 7:12 amFrom the North County Times:
Poseidon Resources has submitted two plans for its proposed Carlsbad desalination plant to the California Coastal Commission, the company said Wednesday.
One plan is to reduce the desalination plant’s effect on ocean life. The second is to reduce the energy needed by the plant, which would in turn reduce generation of greenhouse gases. The plans were requested by the commission as a condition of approving the project, said Scott Maloni, a Poseidon vice president.
The Coastal Commission plans to meet sometime in early August in Oceanside to vote on the plans.
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
‘No Furniture Is as Expensive as a Government Bureau’, says commentary about desalination; writer alleges collusion between agencies to draw out the process
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 20, 2008 at 6:58 amFrom the San Diego Business Journal, this commentary:
This is update No. 2,000 on the Carlsbad desalination plant approval process, which began in 1999. The process is about as long lasting as a daily television soap opera.
We could call it, “As the Tide Turns, So Does the Government Process.”
The latest episode took place on the stage of the State Regional Water Resources Control Board on April 9 in Kearny Mesa. The plot is intricate, deceptive and mostly self-serving to the public actors who star in these sagas.
All of the government agencies that have a part in approving the proposed desalination plant have publicly stated that the only answer to California’s statewide water crisis is desalination.
Say what? ALL of the government agencies think desalination is the ONLY answer to California’s water crisis? No, I do not believe that. Lester Snow, in his recent commentary in the LA Times, said that desalination should be one of many things in the state’s water portfolio. The Coastal Commission didn’t seem so enthused about it, either. Plus consider this: The Carlsbad plant, largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, will supply water for 300,000 people. Last count, year 2000 population count in San Diego County was 2.8 million people; Los Angeles County had nearly 10 million people, and I haven’t even included Riverside County, Orange County, or Ventura County. Do the math, and realize it would take a tremendous number of desalination plants to provide enough water for Southern California.
Here’s an interesting allegation:
But the big three approval process players — the State Lands Commission, Commission and the Water Resources Control Board — are playing pingpong with Poseidon Resources and the city of Carlsbad by approving the permit, then adding conditions to it. Then, as they plan to hear the permit conditions update at a later date, staff members of the big three get together to find ways to drag out the process.
The writer concludes by saying, "It seems to me that this process is too long and too costly. Sometimes I guess this old adage is appropriate, “No furniture is as expensive as a government bureau.” Read the rest of this commentary from the San Diego Business Journal by clicking here .
Poseidon’s desal plant cleared another regulatory hurdle, sort of
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 10, 2008 at 7:30 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
The developer of an ocean-water desalination plant proposed for the Carlsbad coast cleared another regulatory hurdle Wednesday – but not really.
The San Diego region of the state Water Resources Control Board conditionally approved a plan by developer, Poseidon Resources, to compensate for the number of fish and marine organisms that would be killed in the desalination process. The board issued a permit for the plant in August 2006, but that permit allows Poseidon to desalinate ocean water in conjunction with the Encina Power Station, at the foot of Cannon Road in Carlsbad.
The power plant uses water from the Agua Hedionda Lagoon to cool its turbines. The desalination plant would divert 100 million gallons of seawater a day from the power plant’s cooling stream, desalinate half and return 50 million gallons to the ocean, twice as salty as when it came out.
The permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board two years ago is good only as long as the power plant is in operation; it expires in October 2011.
More on this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here. Coverage of the same story by the North County Times by clicking here.
Poseidon desal plant on the Regional Water Quality Board agenda
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2008 at 6:58 amFrom the North County Times:
San Diego County’s water pollution agency will consider Wednesday whether to approve a desalination plant proposed in Carlsbad. But another agency is asking the San Diego County Regional Water Quality Control Board to hold off. The California Coastal Commission sent a letter to the water quality board on March 20 asking for a delay in certifying that the plant by Poseidon Resources Inc. won’t unduly hurt ocean life.
Poseidon’s revised plan has not yet been fully reviewed by the commission, wrote Peter M. Douglas, executive director of the commission. A delay until that review has been completed would make coordination of reviews easier by the agencies, Douglas wrote.
However, Peter MacLaggan, Poseidon senior vice president, said Tuesday that the Coastal Commission has repeatedly made such requests for delays. Had those requests been granted, the project would now be years instead of months away from final approval, MacLaggan said. If the remaining hearings go smoothly, final approval is expected by the fall, MacLaggan said, allowing Poseidon to start construction before the end of the year.
Read the rest of this story from the North County Times by clicking here.
Poseidon has promised to eliminate it’s carbon footprint, but will that really happen?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 7, 2008 at 6:47 am
From Voice of San Diego:
The developers of the planned Carlsbad desalination plant offer an alluring pitch: They’ll harness the limitless ocean and produce enough drinking water to satiate the needs of more than 100,000 San Diego County families.
Those who have opposed Poseidon Resources Corp.’s desalination plant have long pointed to its effect on marine life. The pumps that draw in 100 million gallons of seawater each day can trap and crush eggs, larvae and small fish.
But as the county’s awareness of climate change has dawned, the plant’s opponents have seized on its sizeable carbon footprint, a byproduct of the energy-intensive process of sucking in seawater and filtering it through membranes that remove salt.
Poseidon has attempted to diffuse that argument by volunteering to offset some of its carbon dioxide emissions. Though the plant itself will not generate carbon dioxide, the power plants that provide its electricity will. So Poseidon has drafted a climate action plan, which details the steps it will take to offset greenhouse gas emissions, such as planting $1 million worth of trees in wildfire-affected areas of the county and investing $4.1 million in rooftop solar panels at the facility. Its efforts led Forbes magazine to recently name Poseidon one of the top 100 companies “going green.”
In news releases, the company claims the plant will be “the first major infrastructure project in the state to voluntarily eliminate its carbon footprint.”
Read the rest of this comprehensive story from the Voice of San Diego by clicking here.
More questions for Poseidon regarding Carlsbad desal plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 3, 2008 at 6:44 amFrom the North County Times:
For the second time in three months, a government agency has raised environmental concerns about a plan to take seawater out of the ocean off Carlsbad and turn it into drought-proof drinking water. And for the second time, the agency in question has already approved, albeit conditionally, the desalinization plant.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the region’s water-pollution police force, is the latest agency to raise environmental concerns about the Carlsbad plant. In a recent letter, the control board said it wanted more information about how the plant would minimize harm to fish and the environment —- 21 months after the board awarded the plant a discharge permit.
In November, the California Coastal Commission awarded the plant a permit, on the condition that its backers, Poseidon Resources Inc., answer more questions about the same subjects.
Environmental groups last week immediately said the control board’s action proved environmental worries were valid, and that agencies were moving too quickly to conditionally approve the plant. “It’s absurd to us that any agency could pre-approve a project of this magnitude without having this information already tied down,” said Marco Gonzalez, an environmental lawyer active in the Surfrider Foundation, which has sued to overturn the commission’s permit approval.
Poseidon downplayed the ongoing questions.
Poseidon Vice President Peter MacLaggan said the company has legitimate plans to ease environmental harm, and that all questions would be answered in coming months. “What I take away from all of this is we haven’t done a very good job of explaining our story,” MacLaggan said. “That’s what has prompted the questions.”
Get the rest of the story from the North County Times by clicking here.
Lawsuits against Poseidon desal facility are ‘foolish and wasteful obstructionism’, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 8, 2008 at 12:03 amFrom 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.
Poseidon’s desalination adventure spells disaster, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 5, 2008 at 7:10 amFrom the North County Times, this commentary by Mark A. Massara, environmental attorney and director of the Sierra Club’s coastal programs:
The Sierra Club applauds the decision by the Surfrider Foundation and the Planning and Conservation League to seek legal review of Poseidon Resources’ proposal to construct the largest private desalination project in North American history, on public trust property at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad (Jan. 15, “Green groups challenge Carlsbad desal plant”).
Approval of the project by the Coastal Commission on Nov. 15, 2007, was a low point in Coastal Act history and an embarrassing display of political pandering by Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, San Diego City Council President Scott Peters, San Diego City Councilman (and Coastal Commissioner) Ben Hueso, and others.
In their zeal for Poseidon’s plan, they told stories of wildfires and water shortages but gave not a glance toward the clear mandates of the law, the danger of giving away public trust water resources to private profiteers or San Diego County’s ongoing, steadfast refusal to consider or implement meaningful water conservation measures or limit reckless sprawl.
Poseidon also intends to become one of the worst killers of fish in modern history, and despite their refusal to do accurate analysis of the extent of their plant’s devastation, what we do know will take your breath away.
To read the rest of this commentary from Mark A. Massara and the North County Times, click here.