Costa Mesa in piping plan
The heated debate over a controversial desalination plant planned for
Huntington Beach hasn’t crossed the border into Costa Mesa, but a
pipeline from the plant would.
Huntington Beach officials will hold a key vote Monday on whether
to grant permits to build the Poseidon plant, a $250-million facility
designed to convert 50 million gallons of seawater per day to
drinking water.
If the project is built, it will include a 10-mile pipeline, about
six miles of which would go through Costa Mesa to connect with an
existing water line on Del Mar Street near the Costa Mesa Freeway
(55).
Three routes for the pipeline are proposed, with the main route
entering Costa Mesa along Adams Avenue and turning south on Placentia
Avenue. It would then skirt the northern edge of Fairview Park and
the Costa Mesa Golf Course and extend to Harbor Boulevard, turn east
on Fair Drive and end at Del Mar and Orange avenues.
The pipeline would use public rights-of-way, so it would require
approval from Costa Mesa staff members but not the City Council. The
city already has sent comments on the project to Huntington Beach and
will require a plan to deal with traffic during construction, said
Costa Mesa associate engineer Raja Sethuraman.
“We told them they can’t close any streets,” he said. “If they
work on Adams, they’ll have to do it at night.”
Some residents are still apprehensive. Sandra Genis, a former
mayor of Costa Mesa, said she’s concerned about traffic and
construction noise from the pipeline project.
“Nobody in Costa Mesa had really been aware of it, and it’s going
to be a mess,” she said.
Genis also wondered where the equipment staging areas will be.
Some of those details have yet to be worked out, because the project
has not yet been approved.
“If the project gets approved by the Huntington Beach City
Council, they still have multiple levels to go through,” including
the Coastal Commission, Huntington Beach associate planner Ricky
Ramos said.
* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be
reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at
o7alicia.robinson@latimes.comf7.
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