For Immediate Release
Friday, March 25, 2022
Media Contacts
Lucila Garcia, 323-646-2150 (English, Español)
Betsy López-Wagner, 708-717-9408
California Coastal Commission Must Require Proposed Brookfield-Poseidon Desalination Plant Permit Seekers to Release Financial Details, Say Huntington Beach Community Groups and Stop Poseidon Coalition Members
LOS ANGELES, CA (March 25, 2022) – Members of the Stop Poseidon including Azul, Sunrise LA, the Surfrider Foundation and the California Coastal Protection Network, alongside area tribal and community groups, are imploring the California Coastal Commission to release financial information related to the proposed Brookfield-Poseidon Huntington Beach Desalination Plant.
In a letter sent to the Commission on Thursday night, Azul, Society of Native Nations, Idle No More So Cal, Sierra Club Los Angeles Chapter, Sierra Club CA, Sierra Club San Diego Chapter, OakView ComUnidad, Sunrise OC, Orange County Environmental Justice, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Residents for Responsible Desalination, Surfrider Foundation and the California Coastal Protection Network noted that by law, Brookfield-Poseidon should be required to produce relevant documents related to all financial and budgetary strategies of its Huntington Beach desalination plant because it would serve the public interest.
The call that the Commission “fulfill its duty of integrating procedural justice and the principles of environmental justice, equality, and social equity into all of its programs and ensuring public confidence in the Commission’s process and commitment to coastal equity by requiring financial transparency from Brookfield-Poseidon,” comes just two-weeks after the same groups pressed the Commission for transparency.
“Clean and affordable safe water is our right,” said Andrea Leon-Grossmann, Director of Climate Action of Azul. “There are smart and affordable alternatives to seawater desalination, which requires more energy to produce a gallon of water than any other source – we are asking that these documents be made available to ensure corporate schemes don’t maximize the proposed desalination plant’s profits while placing a disproportionate financial burden on low-income residents of Orange County.”
“People who live here, especially people who are already working frontline jobs, shouldn’t have to also take on the job of patrolling a massive group to get information on how a private water deal is going to impact them,” said Alejandro Sobrera, organizing coordinator for Sunrise Orange County.
See the letter sent to the California Coastal Commission on March 24th, here.
Deceptive practices and greenwashing are already on center stage in Orange County as the $650 billion dollar private Brookfield Asset Management and its subsidiary, Poseidon Water, seek taxpayer dollars to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach which would raise water rates for residents while withdrawing 106 million gallons out of the ocean every day for the next 50 years, killing marine life.
For more information, please visit the California Desal Facts website.