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Drought Boon or Boondoggle? Critics Blast Poseidon Desalination Plan as Crucial Vote Looms

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Among the many complex arguments over water in California, one particularly heated debate centers on whether the state should seek more drinking water from a plentiful but expensive source: the Pacific Ocean.

The debate has reached a critical stage in Huntington Beach, where Poseidon Water has been trying for more than two decades to build one of the country’s largest desalination plants. The California Coastal Commission is scheduled to vote next month on whether to grant a permit to build the plant.

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Seawater Desalination Possibly Expanding in California Amid Worsening Drought

/in , , /by /abc 7 Newsby Mike Nicco and Tim Didion

As the pressure on California’s water supply grows more intense this summer, another urban area could begin the process of producing their own. The California Coastal Commission is set to vote later this spring on what would be the state’s second major coastal desalination plant in Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles.

Glenn Farrel is with the industry group, CalDesal.

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Poseidon Requests 2-Month Delay in Permit Hearing With State Coastal Commission

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Priscella Vega and Matt Szabo

Less than a month before Poseidon Water was expected to appear before the California Coastal Commission in hopes of moving forward with its controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach, the company asked that the scheduled March 17 hearing be postponed to give its staff more time to thoroughly review documents.

“In order to accommodate the California Coastal Commission’s staff and their diligent review of our application, Poseidon Water made the decision to voluntarily delay the hearing on the Coastal Development Permit until later this spring,” Jessica Jones, Poseidon director of communications, said in a statement issued this week.

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A Parched West Remains Divided on Desalinating Seawater

/in , , /by /PEWby Matt Vasilogambros

Gripped by drought, communities along California’s coast are exploring innovations and investments to ensure residents have access to drinking water. But desalinating seawater, one proposed solution, has provoked heated debate, as some environmentalists say the process is inefficient, expensive and unneeded.

The California Coastal Commission next month will decide whether to approve a private company’s application to build a $1.4 billion seawater desalination facility in Huntington Beach, southeast of Los Angeles. An approval would cap a 15-year permitting process to bring Southern California its second, large-scale seawater desalination facility—joining another in Carlsbad that fully opened in 2015.

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Fight Over Controversial Huntington Beach Desal Project Enters Final Lap in March

/in , /by /Voice of OCby Brandon Pho

A 20-year fight over the Poseidon Water company’s contested Huntington Beach desalination proposal will enter its last lap on March 17, the day the California Coastal Commission is set to hear it in what could be the project’s final regulatory hurdle.

Official word on the hearing date came to Voice of OC in a concise Tuesday night email from commission spokesperson Noaki Schwartz:

“Hearing will be March 17.”

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Poseidon Wins Key Permit for Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach

/in , , /by /The Orange County Register by Martin Wisckol

Poseidon Water’s controversial proposal for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach won a key permit Thursday, April 29, when the Santa Ana Regional Water Board cast a split vote approving a compromise less stringent than the environmental terms proposed at board’s April 23 hearing.

Poseidon, which has been working on the project for 22 years, now needs a permit from the state Coastal Commission before it can negotiate a final contract with the Orange County Water District to buy the water. And, in the wake of the regional board’s decision, there’s likely an additional obstacle, as opponents of the project said they plan to appeal.

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Questions Linger About Environmental Impact of Poseidon Plant

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Every year that it converts a bit of the Pacific Ocean into drinking water, the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant would kill tiny marine life crucial to the sea’s food web.

Questions of how and when to offset that environmental harm remain unresolved in regulators’ ongoing review of Poseidon Water’s plans to build a $1-billion desalting plant on the Orange County coastline.

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Opinion: SB 1 Provides Critical Protection for California’s Beloved Coastline

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Toni Atkins

I didn’t see the ocean until I was 18 years old. That late start didn’t stop me from falling in love with the sea, a love I have pursued in earnest ever since I moved to San Diego.

Here in our community, and in communities throughout California, warming waters and rising sea levels threaten both the coast we love and the people and businesses that are located there. Predictions are, that left unchecked, sea level rise will cause billions of dollars in damage in California and disrupt countless lives.

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Regulators on Poseidon Desalination Plant Received Calls that are Likely Prohibited

/in , /by /The Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol

Three members of the regulatory board considering approval of the controversial Poseidon desalination plant were called by the state’s environmental protection secretary at the time of last summer’s deliberations, an apparent violation of a rule that in serious cases can disqualify members from voting on the issue.

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San Diego Scientist Gets Closer to Understanding Why the Coast Collapses

/in , , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer

Adam Young spent the last three years firing a laser from the back of his truck at Del Mar’s cliffs which are crumbling into the Pacific Ocean.

Cliff collapses along the California coast killed three Encinitas beachgoers in 2019. That same year, another bluff collapse in Del Mar destabilized a set of train tracks regularly carrying passengers between Los Angeles and San Diego. Policymakers need to make big decisions about how best to reckon with earth that seems to fall at random, but scientists still don’t understand what truly causes them to fall.

That’s what Young, a coastal geomorphologist (the study of how the earth’s surface formed and changes) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, wants to know: If we know how ocean waves and winter rains eat away at a cliff face, can we eventually predict where and when it will collapse?

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