Desalination project draws environmental challenge

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Thursday, July 27, 2006 2:04 AM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit to stop a proposed Carlsbad seawater desalination plant, arguing that its environmental study doesn't do enough to show the harm the project could cause.

Lawyers for the Southern California Watershed Group and the Desal Response Group filed a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court last week against the city of Carlsbad, Poseidon Resources and Cabrillo Power.

Connecticut-based Poseidon and the city of Carlsbad have a deal to build the plant, and hope to file a permit application with the California Coastal Commission late this week, or early next week.

Cabrillo is the operator of Carlsbad's Encina Power Plant, where the proposed plant would be built. The proposed project would turn 50 million gallons of seawater a day into clean drinking water. It would also pour 50 million gallons of super-salty water containing the removed brine back into the sea, although Poseidon officials say that water would be diluted.

The lawsuit, which petitions judges to issue a temporary restraining order against the project and rule that the city of Carlsbad's certification of the study was illegal, alleges that the desalination project would do significant environmental harm that could not be eased "to the ocean, marine life and marine ecosystems" off Carlsbad.

Poseidon officials who have been studying the desalination idea since 2000 ---- and the environmental impact report ---- say the project will not significantly harm the ocean or marine life.

The lawsuit also alleges that the voluminous environmental study of the project that Carlsbad City Council members certified in June did an inadequate job of detailing environmental harm in several areas.

Poseidon Vice President Peter MacLaggan said the lawsuit's allegations were false.

"You'd get the impression we never did an environmental impact report," MacLaggan said. "Of course we have a different opinion. I've worked on a lot of water projects in my time, but I've never been involved in one that did as thorough and comprehensive a job as the one prepared by the city of Carlsbad."

Water officials ---- regional and in Carlsbad ---- say the proposed desalination plant would give county residents their first "drought-proof" water supply, and is extremely important.

Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Lawyers representing the environmental groups did not return phone calls.

MacLaggan said his company, Carlsbad and Cabrillo have two to three months to respond to the lawsuit. He said that Poseidon and Carlsbad plan to go ahead and submit their permit application to the California Coastal Commission even though the lawsuit asks the courts to put an immediate stop to all work on the project.

MacLaggan said it could take several months before the project's application is deemed ready to be reviewed by coastal commissioners, and that work could be done on the application and the legal response at the same time.

-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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