Poseidon plant hits appeals road bump

A plan to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach received a minor setback April 12 when the Coastal Commission found substantial reason to consider appeals against the desalination plant.

The three appeals disputed the City Council’s decision on Feb. 27 to approve the desalination plant, which is being planned by Poseidon Corp. behind the AES power plant.

The anti-Poseidon group Residents for Responsible Desalination, the Surfrider Foundation and planning commissioners Mike Reilly and Mary Shallenberger all appealed the project at the Coastal Commission’s hearing in Santa Barbara.

About 10 Huntington Beach residents went to the hearing ? and were quite surprised by the results.

“It was great,” said Eileen Murphy, a member of Residents for Responsible Desalination, of the commissioners agreeing with staff reports that there are still some issues related to the plant for the commission to address.

“We knew it might happen like that but you never knew,” Murphy said.

The commission will review the project again sometime in the summer.

Members of Residents for Responsible Desalination plan to make a strong showing when the Coastal Commission reviews the project locally, likely between June and the end of summer.

Among the concerns raised was the charge that Huntington Beach’s Local Coastal Program policy requires that there should be no degradation of water, which the plant proposal would cause, said Jan Vandersloot, also a member of the residents group.

Commissioners Reilly and Shallenberger challenged the project’s effect on the wetlands nearby.

Poseidon officials decided to not participate in the appeals hearing.

The Coastal Commission staff will now proceed to a de novo hearing, or another hearing for the project, due to staff recommending that “substantial issue” was raised by the appeals, and no commissioners objected to the appeals.

This means that the next hearing for the project will include the appeals for a full review. Poseidon will be required to respond to the issues at the next hearing.

But the appellants remain unbowed. “We will submit more thorough comments for the actual appeal including more technical and expert, legal commentary,” said Joe Geever, of the Surfrider Foundation.

Geever said Surfrider will be working closely with Residents for Responsible Desalination to pool resources. They plan to hire experts to look at finding alternatives to the proposed water-cooling processes, alternative water supplies for the region and any pollution produced by the desalination plant.

Members of Residents For Responsible Desalination and the Surfrider Foundation said the desalination project would violate several local coastal program policies.

Poseidon hasn’t yet applied for a coastal development permit from the Coastal Commission, which has jurisdiction over the ocean waters, said commission analyst Tom Luster.

The commission staff plans to look at effects of intake of water from the ocean and discharging it back, identify measures that can reduce the effect as well as study the various coastal resources that may be affected by the project.

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