Poseidon requests 2-month delay in permit hearing with state coastal commission

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. “We’re proud of how thoroughly this project has been studied through engineering and technical reports and over-mitigated in order to protect the surrounding environment. The decision to delay the hearing will give staff the time they need to evaluate all of the materials submitted into the record.�

Poseidon is seeking the final required permit to purchase water from the Orange County Water District and begin construction on its $1.4-billion plant. The proposed plant would produce about 50 million gallons of potable drinking water per day while discharging roughly the same amount of brine concentrate back into the ocean.

Receiving approval would also end Poseidon’s more than two-decade journey slowed by environmentalists and some Orange County water officials.

Environmentalists have contended the proposed plant would kill significant quantities of algae, plankton and fish larvae essential to the sea’s food web. Some officials have questioned the need for the costly water, which would be about twice as expensive as important supplies provided by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

An email correspondence between the coastal commission staff and Poseidon show both parties are still working out unresolved issues in Poseidon’s proposal.

“After submitting the two [marine life mitigation plans] last week to coastal staff we understand that the staff may not have enough time to review these in detail before the March 17 meeting,� Sachin Chawla, Poseidon senior vice president, wrote in an email dated Feb. 22 to Kate Huckelbridge, a senior deputy director for the commission. “Therefore, Poseidon is requesting to postpone the hearing to May 2022 so that we can work with the staff on addressing any questions on mitigation measures and any other issues that may still be unresolved that staff has brought up in the past.�

Huckelbridge acknowledged their request but refuted Chawla’s framing. She also considered it their “one-time right to postponement.�

“As we have discussed, we were ready to publish the staff report today and have discussed its content with you in some detail over the last weeks and months,� Huckelbridge wrote. “We appreciate your request to work with us to address concerns related to mitigation and a number of other unresolved issues, and will look forward to setting up additional meetings in the near future.�

Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, said in a statement that Poseidon’s postponement was “disappointing� after all the work and time dedicated by the public and commission.

“The conditions that would be set forward by the California Coastal Commission as required by the Coastal Act are not onerous, they are necessary to protect our coast, safeguard local communities and our natural resources from private interests that would otherwise cause irreparable harm — like Brookfield-Poseidon’s desalination plant,� she said.

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