Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
January 15, 2008
1. Top Items
Environmental groups sue over desalination - San Diego Union Tribune
Green groups challenge Carlsbad desal plant;
Environmental groups sue over desalination
By Michael Burge, staff writer
The lawsuit was due to be filed in San Diego Superior Court yesterday, said Marco Gonzalez, an attorney who prepared it on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation and Planning and Conservation League.
The 12-page complaint alleges that the desalination project would harm marine life in Agua Hedionda Lagoon, which would be the plant's water source. It also alleges that the commission did not make the findings necessary to approve the project.
Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Inc. proposes a 500-million-gallon-a-day plant on the grounds of the Encina Power Station, at the foot of
The plant's original design would have used the stream of lagoon water that the power station uses to cool its steam-driven turbines. However, since the desalination plant was proposed, the power plant owner has announced it will phase out its water-cooled system in favor of an air-cooled plant.
The Coastal Commission's staff rejected Poseidon's proposal four times before clearing the application for consideration, saying that it would kill thousands of fish, larvae and other marine organisms and that there is better technology. It recommended that the commission not approve the project.
The commission overrode the recommendation and approved a permit Nov. 15 on a 9-3 vote, but the panel attached more than 20 conditions.
The lawsuit targets the desalination plant's intake method, among other issues, saying it does not meet California Coastal Act requirements.
“Commission committed an arbitrary and capricious abuse of discretion by approving the CDP (coastal development permit) without requiring the best technology available in the facility's design intake,” the suit says.
The lawsuit also says the commission, by approving the project, would allow the killing of garibaldi – the state marine fish, which is protected under state law.
“They were in such a rush to approve it they didn't do it right,” said Gonzalez, an attorney with Encinitas-based Coast Law Group.
Poseidon issued a statement yesterday calling the lawsuit “a desperate last attempt to delay the project,” noting that Surfrider's previous suits were rejected.
“This legal challenge – like the ones before it – lacks merit and blindly ignores over eight years of environmental research and study relied upon by permitting and regulatory agencies that have approved this project.”
Gonzalez said the new lawsuit is the first to target the desalination plant's intake method.
Surfrider Foundation is an environmental organization dedicated to protecting the world's oceans; the Planning and Conservation League is a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting
Jamee Jordan Patterson, a supervising
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080115-9999-1m15desal.html
Green groups challenge
Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit Monday to overturn the conditional approval given to a long-discussed
The lawsuit was filed in
It alleges that the California Coastal Commission acted illegally when it granted a permit to the proposed $300 million plant despite acknowledging that commissioners needed more information about how the plant would minimize harm to marine life and offset greenhouse gases.
Poseidon Resources Inc. officials say they are still working with the commission on those demands for additional information. Poseidon, the city of
Surfrider representatives say the desalination plant would hurt marine life and Agua Hedionda Lagoon, where the plant would be located, and that Poseidon hasn't proved otherwise.
"The substantive issue of whether they can even mitigate (the harm) is still out there," said Marco Gonzalez, the lawyer representing the environmental groups.
Poseidon officials deny that. Poseidon Vice President Peter MacLaggan said that over the course of eight years of study, the company has proved the plant will not harm the environment.
He said the company is simply working out details with the Coastal Commission and that the suit was without merit.
"They're challenging eight years of environmental research and study by pre-eminent scientists in this field from Scripps that has been reviewed by the various permitting agencies, who all came to the same conclusion -- move forward," MacLaggan said.
At the commission's November hearing, Poseidon said it would reduce the greenhouse gases that the desalting plant would emit each year in part by spending money to replace old, smog-producing equipment at other facilities with newer, more efficient equipment.
Poseidon said it planned to offset the harm it would do to marine life gets sucked out of the ocean and run through desalting filters by creating 37 acres of wetland habitat in a joint San Dieguito River Valley program.
Coastal commissioners granted Poseidon a conditional permit. But, they said, Poseidon's plans lacked enough detail to determine if they would work.
Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas said Monday that Poseidon still has to have those "detailed" plans -- which are expected to be reviewed within the next six months -- approved by commissioners before Poseidon can build.
"We can't issue the permit until those conditions are met,"
MacLaggan said Poseidon is sure that the company will get its plans approved.
He said the company hopes to clear the remaining regulatory hurdles, start building by the end of this year and start churning out water by 2010.
"The bottom line here is, the region's dependent on this new source of drought-proof supply from the
Meanwhile, one official from a local water agency that has signed a deal with Poseidon blasted the environmentalists' opposition.
"It's very frustrating to be a water agency doing the very best to supply ... the needs of your community," said Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District. "It seems at every turn, there's somebody standing in your way.
"My question to these groups would be, 'If not desal, then what?' " he said. "They'll say 'conservation.' But we think we're all doing a pretty good job in terms of conservation. So it's very frustrating."
The lawsuit was filed just before the 60-day deadline allowed to challenge the Coastal Commission's Nov. 15 conditional permit. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/15/news/sandiego/19_48_411_14_08.txt
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