Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 7, 2007
4. Water Quality
DESALINATION:
Desalination plant clears hurdle - North County Times
Desal company beats petition; San Diego plant back on track - Monterey Herald
LOS OSOS:
State backs off on Los Osos septic threats; Water board considers shelving orders telling property owners to stop using their tanks - San Luis Obispo Tribune
DESALINATION:
Desalination plant clears hurdle
By Dave Downey, staff writer
But other hurdles remain before waters of the
The State Water Resources Control Board ruled Tuesday against Surfrider Foundation and Coastkeeper, environmental groups that asserted a regional agency should not have issued a permit last summer to allow the plant to return extremely salty water to the ocean. Because that water would contain higher concentrations of salt than the sea itself, the groups alleged, marine life near the plant would be harmed.
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Poseidon Resources Corp., the Connecticut-based firm with offices in
"It is significant because it means we've cleared another hurdle," said Scott Maloni, a spokesman for Poseidon in
In a prepared statement, Peter MacLaggan, the company's senior vice president, said the ruling is "evidence that the desalination plant can be operated in an environmentally responsible manner, without negative impacts to the marine environment."
Joe Geever, Southern California regional manager for Surfrider Foundation in
"The state board didn't tell us their rationale," Geever said. "It leaves us wondering what they were thinking when they dismissed the petition."
Geever said the groups now will turn their attention to another petition they filed to block the issuance of a permit to allow Poseidon to draw in water from the ocean, the raw material for making drinking water. The California Coastal Commission is expected to decide that issue later this year.
"We're confident we're going to win on that front as well," Maloni said.
Poseidon proposes to pump 100 million gallons from the sea daily and convert it into 50 million gallons of drinking water, and the groups assert that huge numbers of fish will be sucked into plant machinery and killed in the process.
Geever contends Poseidon will find the going rough in the wake of a January court decision, Riverkeeper v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. That ruling ordered the federal government to write rules that significantly curb the number of fish killed when water is drawn from rivers, lakes and oceans for cooling power plants and other purposes. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/06/07/news/sandiego/11_31_046_6_07.txt
Desal company beats petition;
By Kevin Howe, staff writer
The state Water Resources Control Board has rejected a petition by environmentalists challenging the brine discharge from a regional desalination plant in
The
In a letter to attorneys for the Surfrider Foundation and Coastkeeper organizations, Dorothy Rice, executive director of the state water board, said their petition objecting to water discharge requirements for the desalination plant "fails to raise substantial issues that are appropriate for review by the state Water Resources Control Board."
The petition, she said, is therefore dismissed.
In dismissing the petition, the state board found that
In an earlier attempt to derail the project, Poseidon spokesman Scott Maloni said the Southern California Watershed Alliance and an organization calling itself the Desal Response Group filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to overturn
"The Carlsbad desalination plant has benefited from over seven years of environmental research and study, which included a 396 day California Environmental Quality Act process culminating in the city of Carlsbad's unanimous approval of the project's environmental impact report," said Poseidon senior vice president Peter MacLaggan.
"The dismissal of this latest challenge by one of the state's key regulatory agencies is further evidence that the desalination plant can be operated in an environmentally responsible manner, without negative impacts to the marine environment."
The permit, MacLaggan said, includes a number of stringent environmental protections designed to regulate the discharge of the concentrated seawater byproduct of the desalination process, which requires 100 million gallons per day of seawater to produce 50 million gallons per day of high-quality drinking water.
MacLaggan said state water officials stopped pumps that send water to
"This is good news for Poseidon, and by implication, Pajaro-Sunny Mesa," said Marc Del Piero, general counsel for Pajaro-Sunny Mesa Community Services District, which plans a desalination plant on
"More important," he said, "it's good news for desalination throughout
The Poseidon project was the first desalination water project to be issued a permit by a regional board, Del Piero said. "It was challenged twice, and upheld both times."
Poseidon's
Desalination, Del Piero said, is a water source that Californians will have to rely on in the future.
"This is a major step forward for desalination in the state and a clear indication that the regulatory agencies are being supportive, when all of the detail work has been done and when the people doing it have indicated a commitment to serving the public," he said.
State water board spokeswoman Liz Kanter said, however, that "each case is decided on its own merits."
"In this case, from a legal perspective, the state water board is essentially saying that it won't review the matter."
The issues raised in the petition were not substantial or appropriate for state water board review, she said, and the project as proposed can proceed. #
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_6081157
LOS OSOS:
State backs off on Los Osos septic threats; Water board considers shelving orders telling property owners to stop using their tanks
San Luis Obispo
By Sona Patel, staff writer
Acknowledging signs of progress toward building a sewer in Los Osos, state water quality regulators have agreed to stop ordering thousands of property owners to quit using their septic tanks if a sewer is not built soon.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board has not determined how long it’ll back off from enforcement against property owners.
But officials from the agency said in a letter to most Los Osos property owners that they want to at least track advancement on the project, now in the county’s hands.
Water quality regulators have been urging the town of about 14,000 to build a sewer in hopes of halting pollution from septic tanks blamed for tainting groundwater and the bay.
Last year the water board randomly targeted 45 residents to stop using those septic tanks if a sewer is not built soon.
Those stop orders are still in effect, according to Harvey Packard, enforcement coordinator for the water board. He added, however, that the board is considering suspending or rescinding those orders.
Earlier this year, the county took over design and construction of the sewer from the Los Osos Community Services District under a plan brokered by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, and passed by the Legislature.
Meanwhile, a citizen group made up primarily of residents who have been issued the so-called cease-and-desist orders indicated it has no plans to drop a lawsuit it recently filed against the regional board.
The lawsuit — whose plaintiffs include the services district —asks the water board to rescind stop orders and to not issue more.
“I thought (the letter) was the first step to providing relief we’re asking for in the lawsuit,” said Gail McPherson, spokeswoman for the Prohibition Zone Legal Defense Fund.
She added, however, that the letter gave a “heads up” to property owners that the board can resume enforcement at any time with accumulated penalties if a sewer is not built. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/60976.html
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