Lawsuit is filed against local desalination plant
Michael Burge
the San Diego Union Tribune
04/24/2010
The Surfrider Foundation filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s approval of an ocean-water desalination plant planned for Carlsbad.
The local board, a division of the statewide board that regulates water pollutants, approved a permit for the project in 2006, then approved a plan last year designed to compensate for marine life that will be killed by the plant.
Developer Poseidon Resources proposes to draw 100 million gallons of seawater a day from Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad, strip minerals from half of that amount and distribute 50 million gallons of desalinated water to more than 100,000 households in northern San Diego County.
Environmental groups have filed six lawsuits and three administrative appeals challenging the plant. Three are active, including the suit filed Thursday. The others failed or were withdrawn.
The local water board approved Poseidon’s permit on condition that the desalination plant draw its water from the stream that the Encina Power Station uses to cool its electrical generators.
