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Poseidon Water came a step closer to building its controversial $1.4-billion water desalination plant on Thursday.
Following hours of deliberation, the Santa Ana Regional Water Board agreed to grant Poseidon a wastewater discharge permit that would allow the project adjacent to the AES power station on Newland Street to move ahead.
On Thursday night after a 10-plus hour meeting, the board voted 4-3 to issue the permit, a compromise proposed by board member Daniel Selmi and dubbed “prohibition with an off-ramp.” The permit would allow the company to operate the facility before all of its permits are granted, a process that would more than likely take years to complete. But Poseidon would have to check several boxes on all five of its proposed mitigation projects before the discharge prohibition is lifted.
Questions linger about environmental impact of Poseidon plant
Poseidon Water plans to build a seawater desalination plant on the grounds of the AES Huntington Beach Generating Station, which will close in the next few years.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
April 28, 2021 3 PM PT
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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.
Poseidon water plant permit discussion continued to next week
Daniel Selmi of the Santa Ana Regional Water Board makes a point during Friday’s virtual meeting.
(Screencap by Matt Szabo)
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Both proponents and opponents of the controversial Poseidon Water desalination plant in Huntington Beach made their voices heard Friday in an all-day virtual meeting that continued well into the night.
In the end, however, a decision by the Santa Ana Regional Water Board on whether to permit Poseidon’s $1.4-billion project will have to wait until at least next week.
Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, with a third meeting on May 13, as necessary.