By ANDRE MOUCHARD|Orange County Register

By Amy Taxin | Associated Press

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) – A California coastal panel on Wednesday rejected a long-standing proposal to build a $ 1.4 billion seawater desalination plant to turn Pacific Ocean water into drinking water as the state grapples with persistent drought that is expected to worsen in coming years with climate change .

The state’s Coastal Commission voted unanimously to allow a permit for Poseidon Water to build a plant to produce 50 million gallons of water a day in Huntington Beach, southeast of Los Angeles.

By Stephanie Elam | CNN

The California Coastal Commission Thursday unanimously rejected a controversial plan to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

Several hundred people attended the hearing, which took place in Costa Mesa, and voiced their support and opposition to the project in front of the 12 voting members of the commission, who all voted to deny a coastal development permit for the Poseidon Water desalination facility.

The California Coastal Commission decided against the Poseidon Water company’s controversial desalination plant proposal, which could’ve killed marine life and changed the ecosystem on Orange County’s coast.

For now, it marks an end to a 20-year battle between environmentalists and the desalination company’s proposal for the Huntington Beach plant.

By Reuters | Times of San Diego

California regulators on Thursday rejected a $1.4 billion desalination plant on environmental grounds, dealing a setback to Governor Gavin Newsom, who had supported the project as a partial solution for the state’s sustained drought.

The California Coastal Commission voted 11-0 to reject the proposal by Poseidon Water to build the plant on a low-lying coastal site at Huntington Beach, near Costa Mesa.

By PRESS RELEASE |Voice of oc

Stop Poseidon Coalition Celebrates California Coastal Commission’s Decision to Unanimously Deny Permitting for Brookfield-Poseidon Huntington Beach Desalination Plant

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (May 12, 2022) – The California-based ‘Stop Poseidon’

By Ian James | Staff Writer

After hearing hours of heated debate, the California Coastal Commission voted against a controversial plan by the company Poseidon Water to build a huge desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

Despite worsening drought and repeated calls from Gov. Gavin Newsom to tap the Pacific Ocean as a source of drinking water, commissioners voted

By CBS NEWS | Los Angeles

The California Coastal Commission Thursday could vote on a controversial plan to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

Back in 2017, the California State Lands Commission unanimously approved the $1 billion private project which is planned along Pacific Coast Highway.

Many residents and environmental groups have been against the Poseidon Water desalination plant for years. Several dozen people held a protest against the plant Wednesday in Costa Mesa.

By AMY TAXIN | AP

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — (AP) — For more than two decades, California’s Orange County has debated whether to build a seaside plant to convert the Pacific Ocean’s salt water into drinking water in hopes of buffering against droughts like the one now gripping the nation’s most populous state.

Now, the $1.4 billion proposal by Poseidon Water faces a critical review Thursday by the California Coastal Commission, which is tasked with protecting California’s scenic shores.

Poseidon and its supporters, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, contend the Huntington Beach plant will produce 50 million gallons of water a day that are crucial to help weather cutbacks on state and federal water supplies following years of drought. Newsom, a Democrat, recently told the Bay Area News Group editorial board that a denial would be a “big setback” and “we need more tools in the damn tool kit” to address drought.

For more than 20 years, officials have wrestled with whether to build a controversial seawater desalination plant in Huntington Beach. At a meeting Thursday, the California Coastal Commission is poised to vote on whether to grant a permit that would make or break the project.

BY RACHEL BECKER |Calmatters

As drought continues to squeeze California’s water supplies, the Coastal Commission today is deciding the fate of a proposed desalination plant that has been debated for more than 20 years.

The decision about the $1.4-billion plant in Huntington Beach is pivotal because it could steer the future of turning seawater into drinking water in California, buffering its vulnerable water supply against drought. 

By Fox La

The California Coastal Commission is expected to vote Thursday on the $1.4 billion Poseidon Water desalination plant, which would turn seawater into drinking water off the shore of Orange County.

By David Schmalz |Monterey county weekly

On May 12, the California Coastal Commission will consider whether to approve a coastal development permit for the proposed Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Its decision, either way, raises important questions about the future of the local water supply.

One controversial aspect of the project is it proposes to use open ocean intake pipes to draw seawater into the plant, utilizing existing cooling intakes of an adjacent power plant that are soon to be put out of commission. As proposed, the project would draw up to 106.7 million gallons per day (mgd) of seawater into the plant, producing up to 50 mgd of freshwater and another 57 mgd of salty brine that would be disposed of through an outfall pipe about 1,500 feet offshore.

California Coastal Commission is expected to consider final approval of the Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach

COSTA MESA, Calif.—As planes flew in for lunchtime landings at John Wayne airport, environmentalists gathered May 11 in the offices of Orange County Coastkeeper to discuss one of Huntington Beach’s most sensitive topics—a $1.4 billion desalination plant that has been on the discussion table for 22 years.

“When you’re going to spend $1.4 billion, it better be for something that you really need. And the fact is that this project isn’t needed in Orange County,” Ray Hiemstra of Orange County Coastkeeper said. “The way desalination works is it’s very local, so this water won’t go anywhere outside of Orange County if it’s ever produced. We have an abundance of water, we have a huge aquifer, and we have a huge recycling capacity that covers the vast majority of our needs.”

By Stephanie Elam |cnn

By Priya Shukla |forbes.com

By Associated Press | abc10.com

By David González | abc7.com

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — A state panel on Thursday is expected to consider final approval of a controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach, a project that has been in the works for two decades.

The California Coastal Commission is set to vote on a permit for a Poseidon Water seawater desalination facility at a scheduled meeting.

By Christina Pascucci | ktla.com

The California Coastal Commission is expected to vote Thursday on the $1.4 billion Poseidon Water desalination plant, which would turn seawater into drinking water off the shore of Orange County.

The plant would be built near Pacific Coast Highway and Magnolia off Huntington State Beach.

The project is controversial, with some saying it would provide a great drought-proof source of water, while others worry about the monetary and environmental costs.

By AMY TAXIN | Apnews

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — For more than two decades, California’s Orange County has debated whether to build a seaside plant to convert the Pacific Ocean’s salt water into drinking water in hopes of buffering against droughts like the one now gripping the nation’s most populous state.

Now, the $1.4 billion proposal by Poseidon Water faces a critical review Thursday by the California Coastal Commission, which is tasked with protecting California’s scenic shores.

Poseidon and its supporters, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, contend the Huntington Beach plant will produce 50 million gallons of water a day that are crucial to help weather cutbacks on state and federal water supplies following years of drought. Newsom, a Democrat, recently told the Bay Area News Group editorial board that a denial would be a “big setback” and “we need more tools in the damn tool kit” to address drought.

By Daniel Trotta | Reuters

COSTA MESA, Calif., May 12 (Reuters) – California regulators on Thursday will vote on whether to approve a proposed $1.4 billion plant to convert seawater to drinking water, a project billed as a partial solution to a sustained drought that threatens the state’s economic health.

In deciding the fate of the Huntington Beach desalination plant, the California Coastal Commission must weigh an expert recommendation to kill the project against pressure from Governor Gavin Newsom to approve it. The vote will follow a hearing at a Costa Mesa hotel conference room.

By David Schmalz | monterey county Weekly

David Schmalz here. Tomorrow, May 12, the California Coastal Commission will consider whether to approve a coastal development permit for the proposed Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Its decision, either way, raises important questions about the future of the local water supply.

One controversial aspect of the project is it proposes to use open ocean intake pipes to draw seawater into the plant, utilizing existing cooling intakes of an adjacent power plant that are soon to be put out of commission.

by: Steve Lopez | LaTimes

Gov. Gavin Newsom has weighed in again.

He supports the massive Huntington Beach desalination plant that comes up for a vote Thursday before the Coastal Commission.

I’ve weighed in, too.

It’s a really, really bad idea, as I explained in December.

California officials are poised to decide the fate of a controversial desalination plant planned along its southern coast, in a vote that comes as the American west battles an increasingly perilous drought.
California water use leapt 19% in March, amid one of the driest months on record. After more than a decade of debate, the California coastal commission on Thursday will finally vote on a proposal for a $1.4bn desalination plant in Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles.

by: Chip Yost | Ktla.com

A developer wants to build a $1.4 billion desalination plant to turn seawater into drinking water off the shore of Huntington State Beach.

The California Coastal Commission is expected to vote Thursday on the Poseidon Water plant, which would be built near Pacific Coast Highway and Magnolia. 

“The site in Huntington Beach is a perfect site for sea water desalination,” said Jessica Jones, director of communications at Poseidon Water, a U.S. seawater desalination developer.

By: Mimi Elkalla | 10 News

SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— Poseidon Water, the company that runs the seawater desalination facility in Carlsbad, is pushing to build another desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

“We developed the project in Carlsbad and have been operating that facility since we came online in 2015. In that time, we have produced almost 90 billion gallons of fresh water for San Diego County residents,” said Jessica Jones, director of communications for Poseidon Water.

BY John Earl | Socal Water Wars

Whether it’s a reasonable use of water or not will be the big question underlying the proposed Huntington Beach Poseidon ocean desalination project when it comes before the California Coastal Commission on May 12 for a pivotal but still less than determinative thumbs up or down vote.

The Commission’s staff of experts recommends project denial due to unmitigated environmental effects and “likely significant burdens on environmental justice communities” due to higher water bills.

BY COURTESY | Oc Breeze

The California-based ‘Stop Poseidon’ coalition, comprised of environmental justice, coastal and ocean conservation groups, digitally delivered 12,512 signatures and comments to the California Coastal Commission in opposition to the proposed Brookfield-Poseidon Desalination Plant – which would be expensive, unnecessary, and environmentally damaging.

“As a grassroots organization working to conserve the ocean and coasts, we thank the residents of California in joining alongside us – in solidarity – to voice their opposition to the devastation that the Brookfield-Poseidon plant would cause to Orange County and our state’s climate action and mitigation,” said Stop Poseidon coalition member Andrea León-Grossmann, who is the director of Climate Action at Azul. “These signatures, more than 12,500, are a clear statement to the California Coastal Commission that this project is not welcomed in our state or in the backyards of our communities.”

I am an almost 40-year resident and homeowner in southeast Huntington Beach, a couple miles from the proposed Poseidon Water desalination plant. I have been against it from the beginning. However, while most residents here have opposed the desal plant on environmental and energy-use grounds, I additionally oppose it on fiscal and ethical grounds. When Poseidon promoters rolled into town about 20 years ago, they were peddling snake oil instead of drinking water. They promised that the project “wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a dime.” Now, this charlatan of a water company is trying to grab every break it can get (using taxpayer dollars) and fleece local ratepayers for millions of dollars over their decades-long contract. Its backers have bought local and regional politicians with plenty of cash and partisan influence. While the Republican Party at all levels has uniformly supported this billion dollar boondoggle, I regret that even some Democrats in high places have been compromised. Only the California Coastal Commission can hold back this existential threat to our community and coastal environment at their hearing next week. Poseidon has proved untrustworthy in all of its representations and dealings to date. The Orange County Water District board has been all too willing to sell its constituents down the river and into the ocean. It is time for affected residents and ratepayers to shout “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take this anymore!”

BY GUEST COMMENTARY | Calmatters

As North Orange County residents, we are concerned about our future water supplies, and we hate seeing bad investments made with public dollars — especially for private entities. While North Orange County may not have the same drought burdens as other communities across California — given our robust aquifer — we know Brookfield-Poseidon’s proposed Huntington Beach Ocean Desalination Project is not the answer to bringing new water resources to our region. 

BY BRANDON PHO | Voice of Oc

Seinfeld aired its series finale, the FDA first approved Viagra, and California banned smoking inside bars and restaurants the same year Poseidon Water came to town with an idea for a large-scale seawater desalting plant in Huntington Beach.

More than two decades later, the big plan to suck 100 million gallons off the coast every day and turn half into drinkable water to privately sell – deemed a solution in search of a problem by critics – might be off to a bad start in facing its biggest state regulatory hurdle yet: 

The California Coastal Commission. 

BY MICHAEL HILTZIK | BUSINESS COLUMNIST

When it comes to wasteful, overpriced and ill-considered proposals to address California’s water supply issues, it’s hard to know where to start.

But a good place would be the plan to build a desalination plant on the Pacific coast at Huntington Beach. As my colleague Ian James has reported, the project, which is sponsored by the politically wired and private-equity-owned firm Poseidon Water, will be coming up for a crucial vote by the California Coastal Commission on May 12.

BY SARAH PILLA | HUNTINGTON BEACH

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Growing up in Anaheim, the beach and the ocean served as a place of solace for Orange County Coastkeeper Founder and President Garry Brown, who created the nonprofit to help protect the place he loves most.

“We’ve created a professional organization that can sit across the table, from regulators, from the public, and we can represent the environment, we can represent clean water,” Brown said.

By Daniel Trotta | Reuters

April 25 (Reuters) – A proposed California desalination plant that would produce 50 million gallons of drinking water per day failed a crucial regulatory hurdle on Monday, possibly dooming a project that had been promoted as a partial solution for sustained drought.

The staff of the California Coastal Commission recommended denying approval of the Huntington Beach plant proposed by Poseidon Water, controlled by the infrastructure arm of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management

Poseidon Water, a massive desalination project proposed for the Pacific coast in Huntington Beach, has been in the works for more than two decades. A critical vote is expected for the project next month.

By ANDRE MOUCHARD | Orange County Register

Poseidon Water’s long-running, controversial effort to turn the ocean off Huntington Beach into tap water for much of Orange County suffered a potentially fatal blow Monday, April 25 when staff for the California Coastal Commission released a report saying the project should not be built.

Citing a range of economic and social factors, including environmental damages from the proposed plant and the company’s track record for slow-walking environmental projects that would offset harm caused by its existing desalination plant in Carlsbad, the staff recommended that the commissioners vote against approving the project May 12 when they hold a public hearing in Costa Mesa.

BY AP NEWS

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A report issued Monday urges a California coastal panel to deny a proposal to build a $1.4 billion desalination plant that would draw on the ocean to expand water sources in Southern California.

Staff for the California Coastal Commission recommended the panel reject Poseidon Water ’s proposal to build the 50 million gallon-a-day facility Huntington Beach. The project is up for discussion before the panel on May 12.

BY IAN JAMES | Los Angeles Time

Among the many complex arguments over water in California, one particularly heated debate centers on whether the state should seek more drinking water from a plentiful but expensive source: the Pacific Ocean.

The debate has reached a critical stage in Huntington Beach, where Poseidon Water has been trying for more than two decades to build one of the country’s largest desalination plants.

Carlsbad state beach is a Southern California idyll. Palm trees adorn the cliffs above the sand, and surfers paddle out for the waves. From the beach it is impossible to tell that a huge desalination plant not half a mile away is sucking in seawater to produce 50m gallons of new drinking water each day. It is the largest in America—for now. Soon it may share that title with a proposed sister plant 60 miles (97km) north in Huntington Beach. But only if that one is built.

BY NOAH BIESIADA AND BRANDON PHO| Voice of Oc

In late February, the newly-formed Orange County Power Authority made a bold promise.

A highly controversial seawater desalination plant, proposed to operate in Huntington Beach, would use 100% renewable energy per a new agreement between the project’s proposer, Poseidon Water, and the agency.

The agreement between Poseidon Water and the agency would “further enhance the facility’s environmental sustainability,” according to a joint news release from both sides.

BY JORDAN B DARLING | Thelog

HUNTINGTON BEACH一 A key meeting on the proposed Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach was postponed from its original date on March 17 until May at the request of Poseidon. Poseidon is currently looking for the final permit needed from the Coastal Commission before finalizing a contract with the Orange County Water District to build a highly contested desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Environmentalist groups have stood against the plant, arguing that the plant would unnecessarily kill marine life, and the proposed mitigation for environmental damage is inadequate.

BY JEFF ROKOS | LATIMES

There is no doubt that Shirley Dettloff has been a force for positive change in Huntington Beach for a long time, especially concerning the local environment and, in particular, the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Without her early involvement, it is questionable whether we would have the invaluable wildlife habitat today that is the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. However, one must wonder if she has considered the total picture regarding the Poseidon desalination project after her recent commentary in the Daily Pilot (“Working together to safeguard the environment”, Feb. 27). Because of the considerable influence she has in the community, I think it is important to provide some additional information to flesh out the bigger picture here.

BY PAULA CONSTANCE | PATCH

With a pledge run on 100 percent clean energy, Poseidon Water signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orange County Power Authority on Tuesday. After more than two decades, the controversial desalination plant is coming to Huntington Beach with a zero-carbon footprint through the state’s carbon offset program. Orange County Power Authority board member and Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Mike Posey said, “being powered completely by renewable energy” would help the facility keep its commitment to Huntington Beach “to be good stewards of the environment.” You can read the full story here: (Los Angeles Times)

BY MARTIN WISCKOL | Orange County Register

As Poseidon Water gears up for next month’s final permit hearings on its controversial Huntington Beach desalination proposal, the company signed a non-binding agreement Tuesday, Feb. 22, recognizing a “goal” of 100% clean energy for the massive power needs of the plant.

The surge of new greenhouse gases resulting from those needs is among numerous objections to the operation, and opponents remain skeptical Poseidon will follow through with its 100% clean energy promise.

BY LINDA PEREZ | La Opinión

En la superficie, la desalinización suena como una idea brillante. Pero transformar el agua del océano en algo seguro y potable a gran escala requiere más que una varita mágica.

Requiere cientos de millones de dólares, enormes cantidades de energía y un lugar para descargar el lodo salado creado por el proceso.

La compañía Poseidón, de propiedad extranjera, ha intentado durante más de 15 años representar este sueño imposible en la costa de California. Ahora se han centrado en el condado de Orange, con la promesa de convertir un sitio altamente contaminado en Huntington Beach en una planta de agua.

Opponents of a proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach have released a 3-D simulation of how water inching inland as sea levels rise in the future could flood the area to help make their argument against the project.

Poseidon Water’s proposal for the plant is working its way through various agencies getting approvals necessary to start construction. Those behind the project argue they have done their own research based on the standards used by the state looking at sea level rise and tsunami hazards in the area of the project and it would not be vulnerable given what was is forecast during its operating life.

BY BRANDON PHO| VOICE OF OC

A 20-year fight over the Poseidon Water company’s contested Huntington Beach desalination proposal will enter its last lap on March 17, the day the California Coastal Commission is set to hear it in what could be the project’s final regulatory hurdle.

A California agency voted Wednesday to reserve some of the state’s limited private activity bonds to non-housing uses, providing an opportunity for projects such as a private-equity backed train to Las Vegas and a controversial desalination plant to apply for the coveted financing.

At its meeting, the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee in a split vote approved divvying up $4.3 billion of its bond capacity, an amount determined under population-based federal guidelines, mostly to projects that boost affordable housing. Of that, $510.4 million will go toward qualifying non-housing projects such as the electric rail proposed by a company backed by Fortress Investment Group and Poseidon Water’s seawater facility in Huntington Beach that has drawn the ire of environmental groups.

BY MATT SZABO | STAFF WRITER

The controversial Poseidon Water seawater desalination plant in Huntington Beach could be in line to receive millions in state funds from the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.

The committee met Wednesday, a three-hour meeting during which it partially decided how to divide up more than $4.3 billion in tax exempt Private Activity Bonds that are available for distribution in 2022.

Most of the money — about $3.7 billion — will go to qualified residential rental programs, which would fund affordable housing. However, the committee also voted to allocate about $510 million to other exempt facilities, which include Poseidon.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — While going through his morning routine before work, Oscar Rodriguez, community organizer and co-founder of Oak View Communidad, is focused on his talking points to the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, where he’ll speak out against a proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant.

With one act next week, an obscure state panel could make nearly $2 billion available to finance and fund affordable housing projects around the state.

Or it could choose to leave that money on the table and instead enable a Canadian corporation to issue tax-free bonds to finance a controversial, economically unjust, and environmentally damaging desalination plant in Orange County.

Before that panel acts, Californians must scrutinize what is being considered

The solution to California’s water woes is multifaceted. As part of that, this editorial board has long supported desalination projects, including the proposed desalination plant for Huntington Beach by Poseidon Water.

“Desalination isn’t designed to meet all of Orange County’s water needs. It can, however, boost supply around the margins,” we argued last year. “With the latest drought over, it’s too easy to overlook the necessity of building a reliable — and predictable — source of water … We urge the water board to take the long view — and promptly provide Poseidon with the permits it needs.”

BRANDON PHO | Voice of OC

The Poseidon Water company has asked for $1.1 billion from a pool of state money to help finance a controversial desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach.

It’s a prospect which critics argue could take those limited state dollars away from other projects that also qualify for the money but need it more.

Like low-income housing.

STEVE LOPEZ | COLUMNIST | LATIMES.COM

We all know we’re in the midst of a terrible drought in California.

And we all know we’ve got an 1,100-mile coastline.

Is desalination the answer to our problems?

No. It comes after water conservation and recycling, and is just one tool among many that might prevent the state from going dry.

Andrea Leon-Grossmann, Azul

My name is Andrea Leon-Grossmann, climate action director of Azul, an environmental justice organization.

California is having the worst housing affordability crisis in its history and we need every tool to build the affordable housing to address this crisis and ensure every unhoused Californian has a roof over their head.

MARTIN WISCKOL, Orange County Register

Guidelines for how cities and local agencies should adapt roads, railways and water systems to accommodate rising seas were unanimously approved Wednesday by the state Coastal Commission.

The 230-page document sets a controversial benchmark by urging communities to prepare for the Pacific Ocean to rise 10 feet by 2100, a projection so far beyond current calculations that climate scientists haven’t yet determined the probability of it occurring. The prospect of 6 feet of rise by 2100 has been given a 1-in-200 chance of happening.

BENITO OLAMENDI, Univision

Las perforaciones de petróleo frente a la costa presentan una amenaza directa e innecesaria en los esfuerzos por salvar nuestros bosques de algas y, en última instancia, por salvar nuestro planeta de los desastrosos impactos del cambio climático.

BENITO OLAMENDI, Capitol weekly

As an avid surfer and freediver, I have experienced the wonders of our coastline and have had the privilege to see up close what many never get to encounter underwater. The recent oil spill in Huntington Beach should be a wakeup call to all Californians that we need to pay attention to what’s happening to our coast as we address the climate crisis.

In my lifetime, I have seen the precious kelp forests off of our coast diminish due to the warming climate and waters.

LUCILA GARCIA I, HUNTINGTON BEACH

Orange County Coastkeeper of the Stop Poseidon Coalition hosted a beach-side action on Halloween, Oct. 31st., in coordination with Azul and the Orange County Desal Coalition to call attention to the public health, social justice and marine life consequences of the proposed Brookfield-Poseidon Huntington Beach Desalination Plant. For more than two decades, Brookfield-Poseidon has inched closer to executing its plans to convert seawater, a publicly owned resource, into a privatized water supply and long term income stream. It also includes reliance on more than $2 billion in public subsidies and low-cost loans that will shift significant long-term risks onto the public, especially low-income in the region. Economics aside, the proposed plan be harmful for the environment, exacerbating climate change.
In early 2022, the California Coastal Commission is expected to consider a key permit to advance the project. However, Poseidonis refusing to pay the permit fee required for review – unless and until the Commission provides them, in advance, with a recommendation of approval. Photo:Stop Poseidon

Martin Wicksol, Orange County Register

Two environmental groups have sued the Regional Water Quality Control Board over its decision to grant a permit for Poseidon Water’s desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach, saying the board’s environmental review of the project was inadequate.

Poseidon has been working on the controversial, $1.4 billion project for 22 years. The regional board’s approval on April 29 leaves the company needing one more permit, from the state Coastal Commission, before it can negotiate a final contract with the Orange County Water District and begin construction.

Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post

Anybody with a 5-year-old’s knowledge of geography might come up against this conundrum: There’s a water shortage in the Western United States. Right next door, there’s the Pacific Ocean. Why can’t we take some of that big, blue body of water and move it into the increasingly parched territory that borders it?

The short answer, of course, is that there’s salt in the ocean, which isn’t good for people, plants and many other living creatures. But as shortages mount, there’s increasing interest in the complicated process of desalination, or pulling out salt on a massive scale so that water can be put to use by the thirsty populations who live nearby.

Andrea León Grossman, Voice of OC

It should be a no-brainer to invest meaningfully in efficiency and conservation while managing California water supplies responsibly and equitably. And it should also be obvious that we need to build better water infrastructure using good green sustainable jobs to make our state truly resilient. Instead, we are contemplating corporate boondoggles, like the Huntington Beach Poseidon desalination plant, that give us little water with a hefty price tag. Fixing leaky pipes in Southern California–which in fact leak an average of 17%–would give us substantially more water than any desalination plant can, without wasting enormous amounts of energy, killing sea life or privatizing our water by a foreign corporation.

Poseidon Water’s controversial proposal for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach won a key permit Thursday, April 29, when the Santa Ana Regional Water Board cast a split vote approving a compromise less stringent than the environmental terms proposed at board’s April 23 hearing.

Poseidon, which has been working on the project for 22 years, now needs a permit from the state Coastal Commission before it can negotiate a final contract with the Orange County Water District to buy the water. And, in the wake of the regional board’s decision, there’s likely an additional obstacle, as opponents of the project said they plan to appeal.

Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times

Every year that it converts a bit of the Pacific Ocean into drinking water, the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant would kill tiny marine life crucial to the sea’s food web.

Questions of how and when to offset that environmental harm remain unresolved in regulators’ ongoing review of Poseidon Water’s plans to build a $1-billion desalting plant on the Orange County coastline.

“It’s not the board’s job to look out for corporate profits,” said Sean Bothwell, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, as he urged the panel to retain the mitigation condition on Poseidon’s operating permit.

Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register

Ensuring that a desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach adequately compensates for killing millions of small marine organisms poses the latest hurdle for Poseidon Water’s controversial project.

The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board spent most of its 12-hour hearing Friday, April 23 taking testimony and wrestling with how to incorporate mitigation guarantees into the permit that Poseidon is seeking from the agency. No resolution was reached, with the meeting to be continued on Thursday, April 29.

Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times

But desalination comes with many costs, including big hits to the environment and ratepayer pocketbooks. And as Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, puts it, we need to temper our lust for what seems an easy fix.

“Desalination is the last place you want to go,” said Jordan. “Conservation, recycling — those are better alternatives. Rainwater capture. There are many things that should come before desalination, because it has the worst impacts on the atmosphere and on the ocean.”

Sophia Bollag, The Sacramento Bee

Claim: An ad running in Sacramento media funded by an environmental group starts with a provocative question about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s now infamous attendance at a party held at a swanky restaurant.

“Just what was Gavin Newsom discussing at the French Laundry?” the ad asks.

The ad doesn’t answer the question directly, but suggests the Democratic governor might have discussed a proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant with his lobbyist friend Jason Kinney, who hosted the event.

Rating: It’s true that Kinney’s firm represents Poseidon. It’s also true that Newsom is a supporter of the project. But opponents have no evidence that the two discussed the issue.

Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times

When Gov. Gavin Newsom was photographed dining at an opulent Napa Valley restaurant during a surge in coronavirus cases, many Californians saw it as hypocrisy. For opponents of a planned $1-billion desalination plant along the Orange County coast, however, the optics were menacing.

The unmasked Newsom was celebrating the birthday of a lobbyist for Poseidon Water…Poseidon boasts that the facility will provide a local, inexhaustible source of water for Southern California. Critics complain that Newsom and his political appointees are exerting heavy influence to benefit a private company that would produce some of the state’s most expensive supplies.

Matt Szabo, Los Angeles Times Daily Pilot

The Santa Ana Regional Water Board released a tentative order Friday detailing proposed revisions to Poseidon Water’s controversial proposed $1.4-billion water desalination project in Huntington Beach.

The board’s tentative order would make Poseidon responsible for five mitigation projects, including four projects within the Bolsa Chica Wetlands and the restoration of a 41.5-acre rocky reef offshore of Palos Verdes. 

Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register

Three members of the regulatory board considering approval of the controversial Poseidon desalination plant were called by the state’s environmental protection secretary at the time of last summer’s deliberations, an apparent violation of a rule that in serious cases can disqualify members from voting on the issue.

While Secretary Jared Blumenfeld’s calls and texts last summer didn’t explicitly solicit a vote for the Huntington Beach project, the gubernatorial appointee noted in at least two of the communications that “statewide water resilience” was important to Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to disclosures released Thursday, Feb. 11.

Op-ed by Andrea Leon-Grossman, Sacramento Bee

The French Laundry dinner Newsom attended in November was a birthday celebration for lobbyist Jason Kinney, a partner in the Axiom Advisors lobbying firm. Poseidon has already paid Axiom Advisors more than $500,000 over the past year and a half to lobby Newsom (not to mention a $25,000 contribution to Newsom’s inauguration) and other state officials to secure approval of its boondoggle desalination project.

Guest Commentary by Garry Brown, Los Angeles Times

Orange County sees past Poseidon’s efforts to buy support for its desalination boondoggle. Why can’t Gov. Newsom?

Based on Newsom’s 2019 Water Resilience Portfolio, you’d think the governor would be highly skeptical of the Poseidon project. After all, the portfolio prioritizes “water efficiency, conservation and reuse” to meet California’s ongoing water needs and indicates that desalination should be part of the mix only “where it is cost-effective and environmentally appropriate” and consistent with the state’s Ocean Plan. But the Poseidon project meets none of the governor’s own criteria.

By Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register

Poseidon Water, developer of the controversial desalination proposal for Huntington Beach, spent big in an effort to win water board seats for sympathetic candidates in the election Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Backing five candidates for two water boards important to the future of the $1 billion plant, Poseidon spent at least $419,000 in the past two months on independent campaign expenditures outside of the candidates’ own efforts. That’s more than twice what the those five favored candidates themselves raised for their campaigns. In fact, Poseidon’s spending was 50% more than that collectively raised by all 18 candidates for those five seats.

“They really upped the ante,” said Poseidon opponent Ray Hiemstra, chairman of the Sierra Club Orange County Political Committee. “It just shows how concerned they are about these water districts. They want their people on the boards.”

Voice of Orange County: Community Opinion by Oscar Rodriguez

Families in Carlsbad, where Poseidon has built a desalination plant, have experienced rising costs each year that the plant has been operating. In 2010, the average water bill per household in San Diego was $885 per year. By 2018, three years after the Poseidon plant began operations, the average water bill per household in San Diego had skyrocketed to $1,416 per year, and water rates continue to rise. 

In addition to threatening water affordability, the Poseidon plant presents yet another environmental injustice, by fueling a crisis that disproportionately hurts communities of color: climate change. It takes a lot of energy to produce desalinated water, energy that will come from gas plants that burn fossil fuels, which, from fracking, piping, storage, to combustion, harms people and pollutes their neighborhoods.

Voice of Orange County, Brandon Pho

“How far is the governor willing to go to tip the scales in favor of the … project?” Bothwell said on Wednesday. “Is he really going to go against the local residents and the environmental justice advocates’ concerns?”

Andrea Leon Grossman, who has spoken out against the project on behalf of the Latino environmental justice group Azul, said the project goes “into direct conflict with environmental justice, with the human right to water and water affordability.”

LA Times Letter to Editor, Tim Geddes

The for-profit Poseidon outfit has pumped tens of thousands of dollars of support to favored candidates in both the Orange County Water District and the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

The reason these races are so important to everyone is that there are long-term negative impacts to our water rates and water policies if ruinous decades-long contracts are approved.

]Orange County Register, Martin Wisckol

“We don’t need the water,” Elliott said. “At least not yet. … The current terms sheet forces the ratepayers to pay for this water at three times the normal rate, whether it is needed or not.”

[Michael Elliott, incumbent challenging Cathy Green for Orange County Water District on Nov. 3.

CalMatters Commentary

By Charming Evelyn, chair of the Water Committee and vice chair of the Environmental Justice Committee at Sierra Club Angeles Chapter

To make sure that all Californians can count on having water access now and in the future, we have to tackle the climate and affordability crises together, not fix one at the expense of the other. 

Right now, Poseidon is pushing to get friendlier regulators appointed to the Santa Ana water board that must grant a permit for the plant to operate. They have tried to win friends at every level of government, even hiring former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer to help push their project. 

Voice of Orange County, Brandon Pho

Sean Bothwell, an attorney with environmental advocacy group OC Coastkeeper, said there’s a need for von Blasingame to stay on the board, and a need for “the commitment to prioritize the public interest above corporate profits…The only reason to remove (von Blasingame) right now is for political reasons.”

 “It would be a shame to remove such a valued member over one project when we know we need him for the long term,” said Azul Deputy Director Andrea Leon Grossman.

Los Angeles Times, Matt Szabo

Among the issues that Poseidon requested more time to address were the need and cost of desalinated water, the Orange County Water District’s commitment to purchase the supply, the harm to marine life caused by the facility’s intake process and whether the Bolsa Chica wetlands marine life mitigation plan satisfies California’s requirements for seawater desalination plants.

Orange County Register, Martin Wisckol

To compensate for the sea life that will be killed in that process, Poseidon originally proposed restoring 5.7 acres of wetlands at Huntington Beach’s Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, enhancing water circulation there and paying for dredging of the estuary’s inlet.

But board members were concerned that too much mitigation credit was being given for the dredging, which they said is a maintenance project that does not increase total wetlands acreage.

Los Angeles Times, Bettina Boxall

During its long quest for approval, Poseidon has cultivated political support with lobbying, campaign contributions and the lure of drought-proof water supplies. Its promise of several thousand construction jobs and new tax revenue has rallied labor support.

But environmental groups have fought the company, arguing that it is privatizing a public resource and has failed to adapt an old proposal to new state ocean protections.

“How can you tell us you have an identified need for water when what you’re going to do with it is entirely speculative?” regional water board member Daniel Selmi asked an official of the Orange County Water District, Poseidon’s prospective customer.

Voice of OC, Brandon Pho

Environmental activists say they have identified thousands more in contributions that are connected to Poseidon’s project that state regulators should have considered as connected but didn’t.

They argue [Kris} Murray should recuse herself because of the campaign cash nexus, saying they don’t believe there is any way that Murray — in her role as a regulator — could consider the project with an open mind, much less vote against it. Murray, in turn, has publicly disagreed with that notion, saying she hasn’t made up her mind.

By Parimal Rohit, The Log

One of the biggest concerns raised during the May 15 workshop was OCWD’s role as the buyer of Poseidon’s desalinated water. Board members – in addition to asking specific questions about the need for desalinated water and raising concerns about environmental aspects of the project – wondered if OCWD, which acts as a wholesaler, had sufficient distribution in place to move the water.

An inability to distribute the desalinated water to OCWD’s member agencies could result in higher rates for customers – all while the extra supply of water ends up being stored in the ground.

by Adriana Maestas and Andrea León Grossmann, LA Progressive

The proposed Poseidon desalination plant would be subject to sea-level rise and would be powered by fossil fuels. This project is often touted as being climate-resilient, but it’s not. By the end of the 30-year take or pay proposed contract between Poseidon and the Orange County Water District, the plant would be turned over to the county, so it will have to deal with a dinosaur (old technology) that needs decommissioning, and the investors behind this plant would be off the hook.

Conservation and maximizing efficiency are among the least environmentally harmful ways to boost our water supply. They are also among the most cost-effective climate-resistant strategies.

by Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register

“It looks like you don’t have a home for this water,” [regional board member William] von Blasingame said. “You’re going to scrounge around for a home. And if you don’t find it, you’re going to inject it into the ground.”

“We’re asking the consumer to shoulder this burden at a time when they’re already stressed,” said regional board Chairman William Ruh, referencing the coronavirus-induced recession.

by Brandon Pho, Voice of OC

Andrea Leon-Grossman of Latino environmental activist group Azul noted concern with the fact that the public comment process is essentially happening online only….

She also expressed concern with the fact that the meeting was happening in the morning, between “9-5 hours” when many members of the public who would be impacted by a decision on the plant — namely, non-English speaking people — were out at work, or while disadvantaged communities “don’t have good WiFi access or the technology to participate.”

Voice of OC Community Opinion by Adriana Maestas, Oscar Rodriguez, and Espe Vielma

As California continues to struggle with the coronavirus pandemic, leaders must ensure fundamental human rights like clean water. It is essential that we do not allow this crisis to tip the scales in favor of polluters and private water corporations.

Sadly, an OpEd published by the Voice of O.C. just before COVID-19 took hold allowed Jose Barrera, a Sacramento staffer of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), to do just that. The piece regurgitated the misleading talking points of a corporation called Poseidon that is pushing a wasteful, destructive oceanwater desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

by Parimal Rohit, The Log

Poseidon Water obtained its first-ever permit for its Huntington Beach desalination plant project in 2006; the permit was renewed in 2012. The 2012 permit renewal, which would have allowed Poseidon to discharge 60.3 million gallons of wastewater daily, was set to expire in February 2017.

Several modifications – which the Water Board determined to be material – to the project were proposed since the 2012 permit renewal. The 2012 permit, accordingly, was deemed to be “no longer valid” by the Water Board – setting up the current public process, where Poseidon hopes to gain a renewed permit to allow it to move forward with its desalination plans in Huntington Beach.

by Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register

Opponents of the desalination plant, who initially focused on environmental concerns, have increasingly questioned whether the desalinated water is needed — particularly since a 2018 study by the Municipal Water District of Orange County analyzed several proposed water projects and future water demands.

The Municipal Water District study predicts that in the best case scenario there would be no shortages in the central and north portions of the county using existing sources. In the worst case, there would be shortages of 22,000 acre-feet annually — less than half of what Poseidon intends to produce and sell on a year-round basis.

Voice of OC Community Opinion by Adriana Maestas

What would California be without the beach? I grew up in Irvine with an awareness of how fortunate we are to live near the ocean. As a child, my parents and babysitters took me and my brother to Corona Del Mar and Newport Beach frequently during the summer. I have many happy memories of enjoying the waves at “our beaches” while bodysurfing, building sandcastles, and seeing fish, anemones, sandcrabs, dolphins and jellyfish! We also took school field trips to Crystal Cove to learn about the ecosystem. These experiences taught me to respect the ocean and to understand that it is alive, a home for sea life and people.

by Parimal Rohit, The Log

The public was allowed to continue submitting comments to the Water Boards through Jan. 21 of this year. The Log obtained a 14-page letter submitted to the board on behalf of dozens of organizations, in opposition to the Poseidon desalination plant. Some of the organizations who signed on to the letter included California Coastkeeper Alliance, Orange County Coastkeeper, Natural Resources Defense Council, Surfrider Foundation, Heal The Bay, Los Angeles Waterkeeper, Sierra Club and Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.

The opposition letter stated the draft desalination plant permit in front of the Water Boards does not minimize marine life mortality and fails to meet the requirements of California’s Ocean Plan Amendment.