Green groups challenge Carlsbad desal plant
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Surfrider lawsuit says Coastal Commission illegally approved permit | ∞
Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit Monday to overturn the conditional approval given to a long-discussed Carlsbad plant that would turn seawater into "drought-proof" drinking water.
The lawsuit was filed in San Diego on behalf of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation and the Planning and Conservation League
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 Carlsbad and several local water agencies that have signed deals to take the plant's water were also named in the suit.
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," Douglas said.
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 Pacific ocean," he said. "What we see here in this lawsuit is a desperate, last-ditch effort to slow down a project that inevitably will be needed to shore up the region's water supply."
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.
-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
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Why not help, not harm ? wrote on Jan 15, 2008 8:34 AM:Didn't those "non-profit" organizations sue all of our local water districts as well as the Poseidon group ? How do they intend for us to get water ? And why didn't they make their oppositions known BEFORE the Coastal Commission gave their ok ? Why aren't they busy with the UC Davis Commission that is trying to come up with solutions for the Sacramento Delta and its terrible problems from the incursion of seawater, instead of filing lawsuits against our own water districts ? That just doesn't make sense !
Billy wrote on Jan 15, 2008 10:08 AM: Watch them boys form back east. More often than not they are unreliable and can not produce what they say. And some have even been scam artists. I would look at them very closely; e.g., I seem to remember them saying that they were going to utilize already heated water from the electrical plant they will be connecting to. Watch those guys closely.
CaliforniaWaterSource wrote on Jan 15, 2008 2:41 PM:Its time to lead, follow or get out of the way !
Desalination may be part of the long term equation; expensive as it is.
However, " 'If not desal, then what?' " can be answered with a new fresh water SOURCE of ONE MILLION acre feet per year for California. Development of the Source is guaranteed not to damage the environment or the water rights of anyone, anywhere !
CA:...Don't put all your eggs in one basket !
WaterSource (Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com
Likes water wrote on Jan 16, 2008 10:18 AM:The Surfrider Foundation has marginalized themselves and no one will take them seriously anymore after this attempt to stop the most logical source of fresh water for the coastal region.
any wrote on Jan 18, 2008 6:43 AM:Actually since the power plant is going to cooling towers, ... Turns out they need to take 4x the amount of water out of the ocean - and they don't want to do it through wells, where larva and fish wouldnt be harmed. Maybe it takes a lawsuit to flush out the real details of the plan. All the while 60% of the water in this region goes on landscaping and half of that runs into the streets creating a stormwater pollution problem. In reality every bit of effluent, read - sewage should be reused by human solving both problems.
Robert wrote on Feb 7, 2008 2:01 AM:Amy is right. I hate to break it to you, but you guys need to admit that we need to do a "toilet to tap" project. That's what's important. Why are we going to produce more water and just create more sewage? We need to recycle water the same way we need to recycle anything else that can be recycled. Desalination is just the lazy way to solve the problem, while it apparently may create even more environmental problems in the long run. I know it doesn't sound appealing, but you're already eating hot dogs with rat feces, olives cured with lye, and who knows whatever else. Recycled water is a much cleaner option than a McDonald's meal, so get real, get rid of your fear, and let's recycle!
Cheers to Surfrider Foundation!
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