Desalination project stalls

Jenny Marder

Developers who hope to build a desalination plant on Surf City’s

coastline say they won’t let a thing like the City Council’s

rejection of their environmental report stop them.

Billy Owens, senior vice president of Poseidon Resources Corp.,

said the company hopes to return in the spring with a stronger, more

comprehensible report.

The council’s decision came as a major victory to Surf City

residents who have spoken out against the plant.

But the victory may be short lived if Poseidon makes good on its

plans to return this spring.

“We’re going to work hard to address the issues that the council

identified and we’re going to come back,” Owens said.

The proposed desalination plant would pull seawater from the AES

power plant and treat it to produce 50 million gallons of fresh

drinking water daily. The remaining saltwater discharge would be

dumped back into the ocean.

Advocates contend that the $250-million plant would bring revenue

into a cash-starved city, improve the area’s aesthetics with modern

buildings and tasteful landscaping and provide an additional water

source to a city threatened by drought.

Critics, however, argue that plans for the project contain too

many environmental unknowns. The plant, they fear, could worsen ocean

water already plagued by high levels of bacteria and provide little

benefit to Huntington Beach.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook, who sat on the California Water

Desalination Task Force, said she could not support plans for the

plant.

“I don’t see benefits to Huntington Beach, nor to the environment

in providing this particular desalination project,” Cook said.

If the plant was bought by a public agency, such as the Orange

County Water District, the city would lose all property tax revenue,

Cook pointed out. Other methods of drawing seawater, such as building

beach wells, would be less harmful to marine life and avoid risks

associated with dependence on the AES power plant, she added.

“This is not a reliable water supply if the power plant goes away

and can’t pump water,” Cook said. “That’s not reliability.”

Councilman Gil Coerper, who traveled to Tampa Bay to visit a

desalination plant there, advocated the plant’s importance to future

generations.

“I saw a very good operation going on,” Coerper said. “I saw this

God-awful looking water, and I tasted the water, and it was great.”

Huntington Beach is not alone in opposing the plant. The

California Energy Commission sent a letter to the city urging the

council to deny the project’s environmental report. Marine studies

contained in Poseidon’s report are so outdated they’ve become

irrelevant, commission staff said.

The California Coastal Commission and the state Department of Fish

and Game have also publicly voiced concerns.

The environmental report has been denied, but the battle is likely

not over.

“We’re quite confident that we will be able to address the issues

that the city is concerned about and eventually get a favorable

decision by the city,” Owens said.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].