Time for desal opposition to evaporate

By: North County Times Opinion staff | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:05 AM PDT ∞

Our view: State commissions should approve Poseidon project to secure our water supply

In any survival-at-sea story, the moment when those adrift contemplate drinking the ocean's saltwater is a sure sign that times are truly desperate. The same can be said for the circumstances surrounding the Carlsbad desalination project proposed by Poseidon Resources, which is scheduled to be considered by the State Lands Commission today.

The key difference, of course, is that drinking seawater leads quickly to dehydrated death in those adventure tales. In our case, desalination promises to help nourish our coastal desert communities as other drinking water supplies dry up.

Under study since 2000, the idea of building a desalination plant capable of producing 50 million gallons of fresh water a day next to the Encina power station was certainly a neat idea. But the key question was always would desalination's considerable costs come down enough and regional water demand come up enough to pencil out.

Fast forward seven years and the idea doesn't seem like something from a futuristic Tomorrowland. Most of the Western United States has endured a multiyear drought, meaning much less water to be fought over by the thirsty states of the Colorado River basin. California's other major supply, the Sierra snowpack, was sharply curtailed by a court ruling meant to protect a small, endangered fish swimming toward extinction in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

After years of fits and starts, which included a failed courtship with the San Diego County Water Authority, the plant's fate now rests with a pair of state agencies, the State Lands Commission \ and the California Coastal Commission . The State Lands Commission manages the leasing of tidelands and submerged lands, while the Coastal Commission has sweeping powers over the state's coastal region.

Both agencies are expected to examine the plant's potentially significant impact on the environment, including the release of greenhouse gases.

There's little doubt that this kind of project will have some negative consequences for marine life. Proponents argue that since the power plant already uses large amounts of seawater for cooling ---- water that Poseidon will then desalinate ---- the plant's impacts will be minimal. Studies by both the Water Authority and city of Carlsbad reached a similar conclusion. With the Encina plant's owners planning to move farther inland, Poseidon may not be able to piggyback on its seawater intake for too long.

Those problems can't be glossed over, but to help compensate for them, Poseidon has offered to set aside $2.79 million for several coastal restoration projects in coastal North County. The company also plans to make its desalination carbon-neutral through energy efficiency and buying credits that pay for projects that take carbon out of the atmosphere. These exemplary efforts earned the project an endorsement from State Lands Commission staff.

The Coastal Commission staff is set to make its recommendation public on Friday, and its concerns are expected to go beyond direct environmental effects. The commission could mull everything from the effect increased drinking water supplies may have on population growth and development to the privatization of public water supplies.

Clearly, the commission wants to saddle a straightforward, sensible project to increase our dwindling supply of drinkable water with ideological concerns far beyond its brief. This kind of mission creep is the same sort of fuzzy logic that convinced our state leaders to stop building roads for the better part of three decades.

We must better conserve the precious water we have, and we must recycle more of the water we use. But we also need the Poseidon desalination plant if we are to survive a dry future in this coastal desert.

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12 comment(s)[-]Go to Top

Randy wrote on Oct 30, 2007 2:31 AM:Carbon credits are a bad joke. Someone else doesn't pollute so you can pollute. Overall, nothing is accomplished!

The time has come wrote on Oct 30, 2007 6:39 AM:Yes, we do need desalination. We need Posiedon as well as the desal plant planned at San Onofre after the formerly approved reactor 4 is built and goes on line. The power generated from San Onofre would not add to the greenhouse effect, but would provide the power needed for its desal plant. Support both ideas. The time has come. The time has also come for building and planning departments to insist on dual plumbing waste systems - one for waste, and the other (grey water) for reusable water, but non-potable = not for human consumption, for landscaping, etc.

Paul wrote on Oct 30, 2007 8:40 AM:I am sure there is an environmental reason that the desal plant can not be built. Probably some fish out there that is endangered, or an endangered toad or butterfly where the plant would be constructed.

GFN wrote on Oct 30, 2007 10:57 AM:Slick writing; you didn't say what the negative consequences are. Then you used the words, "Those problems can't be glossed over," and moved on. What problems? Come on now, you've got to do better than that if you want to maintain a credible position. Don't be slick; if you think the project should be done in spite of specific negative consequences, then list them and explain why; don't hide them.

Not amused wrote on Oct 30, 2007 12:34 PM:Just so we save the smelt. After all, the fed court thinks that is the most important issue. Wow, hope nothing endangered gets near the desalination plant.

Just Do It wrote on Oct 30, 2007 12:46 PM:Thanks for writing a well balanced editorial. Indeed, the time has come for the Coastal Commission to get back to what it was created to do and get off their pie-in-the sky dreaming. Just approve the darned thing and get to building. The Federal judge's ruling on the Delta smelt should be a wake-up call that this plant needs to be built now. How much more nonsense do the residents of Southern California need to endure?

Roberto1 wrote on Oct 30, 2007 3:06 PM:No new refineries, power plants or reverse osmosis - desalination plants...blame the illegal workers.

jimmy jazz wrote on Oct 30, 2007 4:29 PM:>How much more nonsense do the residents of Southern California need to endure? " ya mean like the federal judge's ruling?

WATER TECH wrote on Oct 30, 2007 7:43 PM:Desal at this time is not cost effective.You are paying apprx. $500 for an acre foot of water now.Desal water is gonna be in excess of $1300 an acre foot. Let everybodys water bill triple?

Alf wrote on Oct 30, 2007 8:03 PM:Well, "WATER TECH" at 7:43PM, it is about time that we pay "what the market will bear". I am no "tree-hugger", but I am someone who looks realistically at the "sitch-ee-aye-shun" and says some extremely unpleasant things. Politics play a way-too strong role in what we need to do to save ourselve. Regards, Alf.

juancarlos wrote on Oct 31, 2007 3:53 PM:Per the editorial: "dwindling supply of drinkable water." Add an ever increasing population and the result is even more constraints on water usage. When will they ever learn that you just can't grow and grow and grow and grow and grow ...........

Coastal Commission Staff Report wrote on Nov 3, 2007 2:20 PM:The Coastal Commission staff have rejected the desal project at the Encina power plant in Carlsbad. That is the STAFF Report, We all have to stand up and be counted. We realy do need water. It is obvious from the last couple of weeks drain on our water supply, that we are in worse trouble than ever, even though nobody is mentioning it. If we were facing cutbacks, aren't we now facing the possibility of a Stage 1 Water Alert. We need the desal plant, along with the new Twin Oaks filtration facility and we need more water storage areas. Can our government officials override the Coastal Commission, if they do rule against the desal plant ? Maybe. Let's just hope so, or maybe we will have to have a San Diego county initiative ?

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