Pipeline vote could be just a beginning

Costa Mesa residents likely have no idea just how big a vote their City Council made last week. But when the council decided, by a 3-2 vote, not to allow the Poseidon Corp. to install pipelines through the city, it dealt a major blow to a $250-million plan that is at the center of heated debate in Huntington Beach.

That plan calls for the construction of a desalination plant on the coast in Huntington Beach that officials say would generate up to 50 million gallons of fresh water per day. Costa Mesa’s role is a crucial one: Pipelines to carry all that fresh water out to customers have been planned to go under the Costa Mesa Country Club and the Orange County Fairgrounds. That plan is now in serious jeopardy, at best.

Poseidon officials, however, say they will come back to the city, though it may be a year before they are ready to do so. Before then, they still have to get approval from Huntington Beach leaders; a decision on that is scheduled for the Nov. 21 Huntington Beach City Council meeting.

Costa Mesa residents would be wise to watch for the outcome of that meeting, as last week’s vote was likely just a preliminary look at the contentious nature of this issue -- it has been a bitter struggle for years in Huntington Beach, one that’s only gotten nastier in the past six or so months.

And Costa Mesa’s denial of the pipeline is not necessarily the end of Poseidon’s adventures in town. Much can change in the coming months, and Poseidon officials promise to return.

Costa Mesa leaders suggested that their opinions could be swayed, although they made it clear that isn’t the likely scenario. Any compensation that Poseidon might offer to sweeten the deal “would have to be such a huge benefit to offset the huge inconvenience, and I don’t know if that’s possible,” Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor said.

But, still, it could be possible. And that possibility is enough to draw Costa Mesa into a very costly fight.