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by John Earl, cross-posted from Surf City Voice.
Poseidon Resources and the Orange County Water District may have hit another set of self-inflicted hurdles in their quest to build a billion-dollar ocean desalination plant in Huntington Beach.
The potential setbacks include extreme flooding caused by global warming along with downsizing the desalination plant or removing it altogether, according to a recent email to OCWD staff from the California Coastal Commission’s chief scientist, Tom Luster.
In that email, Luster describes several project components that may need changing to earn the Commission’s approval. That, in turn, could impact parts of a proposed revised term sheet negotiated between Poseidon and OCWD board members over the past 2½ years in a series of closed-door committee meetings exposed by the Surf City Voice.
On June 6 the full OCWD Board of Directors postponed a vote on the term sheet until July 18 after public speakers complained about being kept out of the loop by the “ad hoc” committee and asked for more time to respond.
The list of term sheet glitches is daunting, if not fatal.
- Poseidon
must change the project layout to create a 100-foot buffer between the plant and adjacent wetlands habitat. “It’s unclear at this point what changes Poseidon will make to meet that requirement,” the letter states. “A more compact project footprint? A smaller facility with lower production levels? Increased building heights?” - Poseidon must conduct a “geotechnical (subsurface) investigation” at the site, and that requires removing old fuel-oil tanks. “That investigation could result in a different facility layout…or other changes.”
- Poseidon will probably have to change its pre-treatment plan to avoid chemical overloading of the groundwater basin, which could alter the project design or layout.
- During the proposed 30-35 year contract term, the plant “will likely be inundated [by flooding], either short-term (due to higher tidal ranges, storm surges, etc.) or permanently, depending on the rate of SLR (sea level rise) and the response of the area’s existing high groundwater table.” Then Poseidon would have to “remove all or part of the existing exterior berm around the site.” Far worse, “the facility may have a more limited operating life than is contemplated in the Term Sheet, and may reduce the benefit of the Term Sheet provision that would allow OCWD to purchase the facility at the end of the 30– 35-year contract.”
- Regulations limit repairs of damage caused by coastal hazards (as called for in the term sheet) and “that could require removal of all or part of the [billion-dollar] facility.”
- The Commission “may require Poseidon to provide a performance bond to ensure the facility can be removed when needed, which may have an effect on the Term Sheet or the expected project costs.”
Contrary to claims by Poseidon and OCWD’s staff, Poseidon needs more approvals than the two permits (from the State Water Resources Control Board and the Coastal Commission) it claims it needs to advance the project.
Poseidon needs several other approvals, according to Luster…
READ MUCH MORE OF THIS STORY AT SURF CITY VOICE &
support John Earl!
“…opposing Poseidon has become a bragging right this year for some leading candidates for city councils.”
Just SOME of our Previous Coverage of Poseidon:
- HB Council Respectfully Asks Coastal Commission to Shitcan Poseidon. (July 2013)
- Poseidon Runs Headlong into Infiltration Gallery (report on Nov 2013 Coastal Commission hearing)
- Poseidon’s Water Boy: Matt Harper Quietly Pushes Desal Scam Past Ratepayers. (May 2014)
- OCWD’s Sheldon Clams Up on Poseidon Vote, Flory Shakes Things Up! (June 2014)
- Who owns the OCWD, you or Poseidon? YOU DO! Remind them, tonight! (June 2014)
- Unpacking Poseidon’s Latest Propaganda Blitz with Debbie Cook. Pt 1: The CNN Puff Piece. (June 2014)
- Recent Poseidon-Probolsky Push-Poll Threatens Candidates and Misleads Voters. (Nov. 2014)
- Sheldon’s Unethical Culture Challenged by Legal Complaint (Dec. 2014)
- Poseidon & OCWD Bring their Snake-Oil Show to the Pumpers Tomorrow (Dec. 2014)
- Surfin’ Sheldon, Little Lost Dina, Righteous Flory – What You’ve Been Missing at OCWD! (Jan. 2015)
- Poseidon Update: OCWD “just sticks the tip in…” (Jan. 2015)
- Sheldon Says “Suck it Surf City!” The Poseidon Shill is also Behind our High Density Development. (Feb. 2015)
- OCWD’s Forecast for the Future: Cloudy with a Huge Chance of Error. (March 2015)
- Pat Bates Baits Us with Bogus Doomsday Drought Scenario. (March 2015)
- Swan Song for Poseidon? A Blast of Truth from Irvine’s Peer Swan. (March 2015)
- Cage Rattled Hard, OCWD Dons Fig Leaf Before Marrying Poseidon. (April 2015)
- Our Celebrated Groundwater Replenishment System Steals Poseidon’s Lunch Money. (April 2015)
- OCWD profile #1: Phil Anthony, the Quiet Skeptic. (April 2015)
- Showdown at the OCWD Corral Nears, R4RD launches Volley. (May 2015)
- The Poseidon Adventure Sails On! (May 2015)
- Dina Nguyen Stands Up Garden Grove, Skips Fascinating Poseidon Forum. (May 2015)
- Will OCWD be Shipwrecked by Mermaids? (June 2015)
- Cathy Green Falsely Carries Poseidon Water to Coastal Commission (June 2015)
- Watch Poseidon Joke over Proposed Property Tax Increase to fund their “Privately Funded” Desal Project. (July 2015)
- Bao Stands for Garden Grove Against Poseidon, the rest of Council Waffles. (July 2015)
- Phan is the Man – who Stopped this and Needs to Start it Again! (July 2015)
- OC Can Do Desal Better – Use Salt to Lock Up CO2 Emissions. (August 2015)
- San Diego Has Too Much Water – but is Paying $1 Billion for Their Poseidon Plant. (Dec. 2015)
- Poseidon Progress Report: Eight Ways to Screw the Public. (Feb. 2016)
- Why the Coastal Commission Will Approve Poseidon. (April 2016)
- Poseidon in denial over the obstacles ahead, and more… (May 2016)
- Dispatches from the Battle Against Poseidon, Summer 2016 (July 2016)
- Poseidon Plays the Race Card, LULAC Dances to their Tune. (July 2016)
- Fullerton Reaches its Day of Decision on Poseidon (Jan. 2017)
- OCWD Tonight: Replenish the Aquifer with the Winter’s Fabulous Snows! (April 2017)
- John Earl: The Ideological War Behind Poseidon. (August 2017)
- How Stoopid Does Poseidon Think This County is Anyway? (Jan. 2018)
- OCWD Blocks Study of Alternatives to Poseidon, Misleading Coastal Commission. (Feb. 2018)
- Poseidon-Obsessed OCWD will Try to Ram Billion-Dollar Desal Project Down Our Throats. (June 2018)
- Excellent Comments for Poseidon Term-Sheet Meeting: Hamilton, Everts, Moshiri, Hiemstra (June 2018)
Is Luster the guy who replaced the previous guy in his position at the coastal commission meant to be a Poseidon rubber stamp?
doesn’t sound like things a rubber-stamp guy would say.
No, not at all.
Tom Luster is very neutral and very professional toward all sides.
Also, Luster didn’t replace anybody. The commissioners did that.
In a $1 bn project, someone, somewhere quietly, secretly calculated the probability of a total loss (inundation? flooding? earthquake? erosion?), then calculated appropriate insurance, then calculated probability of shifting that loss onto the public and avoiding any costs whatsoever.
That’s an underlying piece in a lot of larger construction works – hidden from the term sheet, known to select investors and financiers behind the investors. It’s a device that enables the ‘innocent’ to ultimately be forced to pay the costs of that the wealthy, rich have positioned to be foisted upon them.
The best defense is professionals who do their jobs, but activists are surely helpful in this, esp. those who really care about their community. I came here looking to find those who love OC: even when I disagree, it’s a pleasure to be among you.
Speaking of climate change / global warming as it relates to Poseidon: VP Scott Maloni likes to use to the severe problem of global warming as a justification for his desal plant in his public presentations. (Of course his contention is that we will have more and more droughts because of climate change; never mind the colossal greenhouse gases the plant would pump into the atmosphere making things worse.)
This was great though, when he came to speak to the Huntington Beach Tea Party a few years ago, his emphasis on climate change left them really confused and baffled, torn between:
1. Tea Partiers WANNA support Poseidon because rich people getting richer off the public and government is what Amurka is all about, AND most of the people opposing Poseidon seem to be lib-tards and enviro-thugs so Tea Partiers HAVE to support it.
BUT…
2. Doesn’t everybody know – doesn’t this Maloni fellow know – that climate change is a HOAX, the biggest hoax ever foisted on the world, by 97% of the world’s scientists in a sinister plot to get more government grants and make Al Gore the fabulously wealthy ruler of the world thru the UN?
It is sad though, if the only thing preventing the OC disaster of Poseidon turns out to be a global disaster.
Tea-partiers in HB are turning against Poseidon and using it against Mayor Posey and candidate Dan Kalmick, the latter of whom has better anti-Poseidon credentials than any other HB candidate; but they are saying that since he is supported by the HB Chamber of Commerce, which has taken large contributions from Poseidon, that he can’t be trusted. Councilman Erik Peterson is trying to depict himself as anti-Poseidon (not anti-desal), but his claim to that honor is weak, at best.
I should have said “Some Tea-partiers.”
It’s not a Partisan Problem, it is an IQ question. If you refuse to look at history, refuse to look beyond your own backyard, refuse pay one RED cent for anyone else….well, then it is all Academic, isn’t it? Baloney……plain and simple. Luster, stuck out his hand and someone filled it up with cash….our bet!