Costa Mesa in piping plan

The heated debate over a controversial desalination plant planned for

Huntington Beach hasn’t crossed the border into Costa Mesa, but a

pipeline from the plant would.

Huntington Beach officials will hold a key vote Monday on whether

to grant permits to build the Poseidon plant, a $250-million facility

designed to convert 50 million gallons of seawater per day to

drinking water.

If the project is built, it will include a 10-mile pipeline, about

six miles of which would go through Costa Mesa to connect with an

existing water line on Del Mar Street near the Costa Mesa Freeway

(55).

Three routes for the pipeline are proposed, with the main route

entering Costa Mesa along Adams Avenue and turning south on Placentia

Avenue. It would then skirt the northern edge of Fairview Park and

the Costa Mesa Golf Course and extend to Harbor Boulevard, turn east

on Fair Drive and end at Del Mar and Orange avenues.

The pipeline would use public rights-of-way, so it would require

approval from Costa Mesa staff members but not the City Council. The

city already has sent comments on the project to Huntington Beach and

will require a plan to deal with traffic during construction, said

Costa Mesa associate engineer Raja Sethuraman.

“We told them they can’t close any streets,” he said. “If they

work on Adams, they’ll have to do it at night.”

Some residents are still apprehensive. Sandra Genis, a former

mayor of Costa Mesa, said she’s concerned about traffic and

construction noise from the pipeline project.

“Nobody in Costa Mesa had really been aware of it, and it’s going

to be a mess,” she said.

Genis also wondered where the equipment staging areas will be.

Some of those details have yet to be worked out, because the project

has not yet been approved.

“If the project gets approved by the Huntington Beach City

Council, they still have multiple levels to go through,” including

the Coastal Commission, Huntington Beach associate planner Ricky

Ramos said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].