Poseidon picture not pretty for city

The City Council should vote against the proposed desalination

project. It is shocking that the city of Huntington Beach, hot upon

the heels of the Sports Complex scandal, is now even considering the

approval of the Poseidon desalination project. The Poseidon project

has the potential to make the Sports Complex fiasco look harmless.

Poseidon’s record in Tampa Bay is a clear and present warning of what

can happen here in Huntington Beach.

The Tampa Bay desalination project is still not operating, and no

one seems to be able to fix the filtering system. Poseidon set up the

plant, and then got out of Tampa Bay, leaving that city with the

repair problem and the bill. Any honorable company would stay and

repair the problem it created, but not Poseidon. Instead Poseidon

took the money and ran across the country to find another sucker --

Huntington Beach. Some of our city officials, their heads bloated

with the Poseidon public relations spin, seem ready to jump into the

desalination project. Have they learned nothing from the Sports

Complex debacle?

The desalination plant that Poseidon proposes would take in

massive amounts of sea water from our beach, and in the process it

would kill all the marine life that comes in with the sea water. This

would create an ever-increasing dead zone in our ocean, yet that

doesn’t seem to give pause to some of our city officials. What is

going on in their minds? Are the hundreds of dollars in campaign

contributions from Poseidon executives to Councilmen Don Hansen and

Keith Bohr going to influence Hansen’s and Bohr’s votes on this

issue? Will Poseidon’s wheeling and dealing of our city officials

leave Huntington Beach reeling with another unfinished and costly

disaster?

* MARINKA HORACK is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindependent@latimes.com or fax us at

(714) 966-4667.