A change of neighbors

Danette Goulet

It has loomed on the Huntington Beach coastline for some 50 years.

The hulking monstrosity that is the power plant at Newland Street and

Pacific Coast Highway has always been an eyesore, but it has not always

been controversial, its owners not always considered public enemy No. 1.

So what made Southern California Edison a “good neighbor” and AES

supposedly such a “bad neighbor”?

While residents and city officials may not have been thrilled about

the plant, it was an accepted evil under Edison, they said.

“[Southern California Edison] only operated two units so you lived

with it,” said City Councilman Ralph Bauer. “Our relation was fairly

benign because it was there a long time.”

Then in 1997 Edison decided to get out of the business of making power

and sold the plant to AES.

“Here comes AES, headquartered in Virginia, a very large international

company,” Bauer said. “They were not as well known to us and when you

come to small-town USA, we expect some pleasantness and the neighborly

things. They still don’t have a [public relations] person. A large

corporation comes to a small town and doesn’t know what being a good

neighbor is all about.”

Edison, on the other hand, was a local company with an excellent

public relations department, Bauer said.

AES plant manager Ed Blackford contends that it is an unfair

comparison.

“Edison provided stable jobs for generations -- they built that

reputation over decades,” he said. “Clearly AES has only been here three

and a half years, so I think it’s unfair for anyone to expect us to have

the same persona.”

In the many years that Edison ran the plant, it was well known in the

community for its good deeds.

“Edison, they have the park along Magnolia -- that was a nice little

thing and Edison still maintains that,” said John Scott, president of the

Southeast Huntington Beach Neighborhood Assn. “They did the animal-care

center and donated money to operate and landscape it -- that certainly is

something that the neighborhood benefits by.”

“I can’t think of anything but pollution we’ve gotten from [AES] so

far,” he added.

The reason for that, Blackford said, is that AES does not advertise

its good deeds. It does not contribute to organizations and causes for

the recognition but it has been active, he said.

“We’ve participated in the effort to redo the pool at Huntington High

School,” Blackford said. “We contributed toward resurfacing tennis courts

at Edison High School and we’ve participated to lesser degree by

sponsoring work important to our employees here.”

It is common practice for AES to sponsor teams coached by employees,

he pointed out.

AES also supports the animal-care center and will include the adjacent

property in the beautification of the plant, Blackford added.

But homeowners say there is more than just philanthropy to being a

good neighbor.

“I suppose a good neighbor, here on the street, are people that work

well together and watch out for each other,” Scott said. “AES, it’s an

international corporation and they are looking out for themselves.”

While Scott said he does not blame AES for watching its bottom line,

he does have issues with the company’s use of the peaker unit and the

decision to refurbish the old units rather than replace them with new

units.

“It’s old, it’s inefficient, it pollutes the air, but AES has fought

all along to keep it on line,” Scott said. “The new units coming online

[the third and fourth generators] are late 1950s technology that I think

the I read were 39% efficient.”

Blackford flat out denies claims that the refurbished units will cause

more pollution than new equipment would.

“Those arguments are all bogus and continue to be purported by the

media,” he said. “The truth is these units environmentally will be as

clean as anything in the state. With the environmental controls being

installed on these, emissions will be as low or lower than on any being

built in the state. This has become a cry and its just not accurate.”

It’s easier to be a good neighbor in good times, officials added.

When Southern California Edison operated the plant there wasn’t a need

to bring extra generators online.

“We had become accustomed to the plant with two units,” said City

Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff. “I think that when AES came into the

community we had high expectations because they had met with leaders and

indicated that they would make dramatic changes.”

Those changes, the beautification and upgrades, were things Edison

held off on with plans to drop in the lap of whoever took over the plant,

Blackford said.

They were also agreed to in 1997 when AES took over.

The plans to make the plant more aesthetically pleasing, which are

still in the works, had to take a back seat to upgrades once the energy

crisis began.

And that’s come as quite a surprise to city leaders and residents.

“There was no indication that they would power up two more units,”

Dettloff said. “We did not see things happening and suddenly we were in a

power crisis, so instead of seeing beautification we were seeing the

operation increasing and the potential for more pollution.”

With the agreements reached last week that allow AES to go ahead with

plans to power up the refurbished third and fourth units, keeping the

peaker unit for dire emergencies until it is shut down altogether in

2002, the company is moving forward with beautification talks.

“Now ask people who work at the sight,” Blackford said. “They are as

happy or happier than before because we do things a bit differently.”