City should protect itself from desal plant...

City should protect itself from desal plant

Huntington Beach has become the laughingstock of Orange County. It

has a City Council with a questionable reputation for making good

decisions. There is a lack of confidence among the residents over

recent issues. Why must we be the catch-all cesspool for projects

like the desalination plant? I’d like to see Poseidon sell this to

Newport Beach or Corona del Mar. They would tuck their tails and

hightail it out of town. If sources for water is the issue, why have

this ugly plant built in an area we are trying to beautify. Put it in

San Onofre, next to the nuclear plant.

I guess it’s all about the property tax income, because I don’t

see that we are getting any of the water or other real benefits. The

City Council will let us all get our blood pressure up and voice our

opinion, then do as they see fit regardless of the benefits to the

residents.

I am really not for or against progress like this, but my main

concern is we’re trying to do business with a firm that does not

present a good track record -- that really bothers me. It reminds me

of the contractor who has messed up over at the new park. This guy

owes something to Huntington Beach, and I don’t see the City Council

leaning on him very hard to complete what he started.

The council’s poor judgment is costing the residents tax money.

If the city moves forward with the Poseidon project, they better

get a performance bond of at least two times the cost of the bid. Oh,

yeah, why are their no other bidders interested in this technical

project?

MORIE HIVELY

Huntington Beach

Council would do best to deny project

The Sounding Off column of Sept. 29 said: “No good reason to deny

Poseidon.”

I say: “No good reason to approve Poseidon.”

Huntington Beach gets none of the water.

Poseidon has no customers for the promised 50 million gallons a

day of ocean water. Its cost is prohibitive.

Our streets will be torn up by a pipeline which may cause

irreparable damage to the people in southeast Huntington Beach.

A sanitation district pipeline in the same area already has

damaged 64 houses.

Poseidon doesn’t know how to produce this quantity of water. They

failed in Tampa Bay to deliver half this amount.

A City Council majority should vote to deny the Poseidon’s

conditional-use permit.

EILEEN MURPHY

Huntington Beach

Take responsibility for our water

It is long past time that coastal regions in America (such as

Orange County), which depend in large part upon imported water, take

responsibility for our own growing water needs. And where better to

start this process in California than the progressive city of

Huntington Beach, which has a perfect site location for the proposed

Poseidon Resources project on land that would otherwise go unimproved

or developed?

Large coastal ocean water-treatment plants using reverse osmosis

(which basically speeds up the natural process of converting ocean

water to potable water) are a godsend that have been sitting idly on

America’s doorstep for decades, without proper recognition,

investment or respect. Much to its credit, our own Orange County

Water District has already endorsed this type of reverse osmosis

technology for its groundwater replenishment program and apparently

plans to build its own desalination plant at the AES site if

Poseidon’s project is not approved.

However, with the water district being tax-exempt, the city would

lose more than $2 million annually that Poseidon would be required to

pay in taxes and fees, and the City Council would lose all control

regarding its development (the water district would not have to jump

though the many City Council, planning commission and NIMBY hoops to

build their own tax-exempt desal plant).

In other words, most likely a desal plant will be built adjoining

the AES plant, so the only apparent question is: Do you want a

private corporation to build it, or do you want a tax-exempt

government bureaucracy to build it? In making this decision, just

reflect for a moment upon the quality of service you’ve received from

UPS versus the Postal Service, and the answer should become as

crystal clear as a glass of fresh “desal.” Then ask yourself: Does

our City Council really wish to lose all control over such a large

project, and more than $2 million per year to boot? And if so, should

we perhaps recall those council members who vote against Poseidon?

The arguments against Poseidon are weak and largely deceptive. All

studies have shown no substantial negative effect on our coastal

waters or any added negative effect on marine life, as some Poseidon

opponents falsely claim. Some folks argue that building Poseidon

would “enshrine” the AES plant, preventing future modernization or

even its decommissioning. Again, simply not true, as the Poseidon

plant could operate without any adjoining power plant by purchasing

-- then, forced by state law, improving -- the cooling loop

infrastructure.

To those opposing Poseidon because “it will prolong the AES

cooling system,” hoping against hope that dry-cooling towers

(normally used for inland power plants that do not have access to a

cooling water source) or even a hybrid “wet/dry” cooling system could

some day be approved and built to replace the AES ocean water-cooling

system: You simply are not living in reality, folks. The visual

impact, acreage required, and noise of such systems would be far

worse than the low-lying and quiet operation that Poseidon has

proposed for its desal operations, and better solutions to reduce

impact on marine life -- such as improved ocean intake design -- make

much more sense for a coastal power plant.

Of course, the water-distribution pipeline construction will add

another temporary annoyance to the southeast section of our city, but

it will be far less of a task and annoyance than the recent sewer

line project presented, as the pressurized four-foot diameter

pipeline will go in much faster and require much less dewatering than

the nine-foot gravity sewer line reconstruction required.

As far as those who claim that “Huntington Beach is a tourist

destination, therefore a large, state-of-the-art water treatment

plant does not fit in”: They couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, many

folks -- tourists, students and anyone interested in technology and

progress -- will wish to tour the desal facility, and in my opinion

it will only add to our tourism value, just as the folks behind

restoring the Bolsa Chica wetlands claim that their project will be a

draw.

Great surf, progressive ocean water desalination technology, more

cash in the city’s coffer, and restored wetlands: We can have it all,

and in balance.

TOM POLKOW

Huntington Beach

Time to pursue alternative energy

I am glad that Pamela Panattoni is able to find beauty in unusual

places like the AES power plant on Newland Avenue, but she might be

painting a different picture if she had any idea how much damage that

and other power plants are doing to our environment. Power plants are

destroying the health of our communities and our planet.

So far we have stood by and watched as acid rain ravages our

forests and crops. We’ve paid the rising healthcare costs as smog and

particulate matter pollute our lungs. We’ve mourned as the heart

attacks and lung cancer caused by air pollution claim another life 14

years before the average U.S. life expectancy. And we’ve cried when

another of the one-in-six American children born with potentially

unsafe levels of mercury in their blood every year suffers the

consequences of mercury poisoning -- impaired development of memory,

attention and language skills.

We can no longer afford to sit back and watch as power plants

destroy our planet. It is time to phase out dirty energy and make the

transition to renewable energy by tapping into the enormous potential

of the sun, wind and geothermal activity. Strict pollution standards

must be enforced for all functioning power plants, and our government

must set firm policy for all states to follow.

HALLIE CAPLAN

Washington, D.C.

One firefighter wants his supply of water

I’ve never advocated much of anything in my life, but this is an

issue that cannot be ignored, especially in my profession. I’m a

firefighter, and I can’t work without the most basic element of

survival: water. If I don’t have a reliable water supply, I can’t do

my job. If I can’t put fires out, the people directly responsible for

this are those who don’t support the building of the Huntington Beach

water treatment facility.

Once in operation, it will provide a reliable source of 50 million

gallons per day of fresh water. Plus, the plant will protect against

future threats to our water supply such as droughts or possible

contamination.

By acting now to ensure a reliable water supply, the benefits of

the Huntington Beach lifestyle will trickle down to all who use

water.

ANDY LAMBERT

Huntington Beach

Many reasons for council to deny plant

I disagree with the notion that there is “No good reason to reject

Poseidon” (“Sounding Off,” Sept. 29).

In fact, there is much scientific evidence that the Poseidon

desalination plan will cause harm to the ocean. Up to 2,000 acres of

ocean will be affected by the increased salinity discharged by

Poseidon only 1,200 feet offshore, with the area predicted to exceed

EPA guidelines of four parts per 1,000 increased salinity extending

up to 600 feet down-current. These areas of increased salinity, along

with the area lost to biologic production due to entrainment (drawing

of marine organisms into the AES plant operations, where they are

killed), represent a significant portion of the Huntington Beach

coastline.

Moreover, a recently released AES entrainment and impingement

study was not analyzed in the plan’s environmental report but states

that the power plant causes loss of hundreds of millions of

individuals of various species annually, and that organisms from just

11 target species lost due to entrainment are equivalent to those

produced in almost two square miles of the near-shore waters off

Huntington Beach.

I would call this a major impact on the ocean and a reason to

reject the Poseidon project. Poseidon causes additional harm to the

ocean when the ocean is already being harmed by the AES plant.

New federal regulations are requiring coastal power plants to

reduce their entrainment effects by 80% to 95%, and this may cause

the power plant to use a different method of cooling. However, the

addition of the Poseidon plant may preclude the use of alternative

cooling methods and prolong the life of this outdated power plant.

Poseidon has a 38-year lease with AES, while AES’s power

production agreements last only until 2018. Many similar old and

outdated power plants are currently being retired. AES should be

retired, but Poseidon will likely prolong the life of it and the

negative impacts to the ocean.

But just as major an impact is what this project will do to the

community and residents of Huntington Beach, and the southeast

section in particular. This community has recently experienced major

problems from a pipeline project of the Orange County Sanitation

District due to the high water table in the area and the dewatering

necessary to lay the pipe, causing property damage and lawsuits from

64 homeowners in the area. The Poseidon project will also need

dewatering, with fairly predictable results that were not analyzed in

the environmental impact report.

Huntington Beach is a very desirable residential and tourist

community that has the ocean as its front door. Do the people want

the future of their fair city to be Surf City or Smokestack City?

Poseidon will further industrialize that section of the city with

smokestacks nd will produce water not for the people of Huntington

Beach but to fuel growth in south county.

Huntington Beach should consider the future of its city as a

residential and tourist community that relies on the ocean and the

beaches for its economic future.

I think there are lots of reasons for the City Council to reject

Poseidon.

Jan D. Vandersloot, MD

Newport Beach

What next at the Poseidon circus?

Poseidon, a company from the East Coast, gave the people of

Huntington Beach a preview of the esteem they have for residents and

our city government at a recent council hearing.

Grown men hoping that their union would be selected to provide

workers to build Poseidon’s desalination plant were placed on display

in matching sweat shirts at the council meeting. Teenage girls, also

adorned in the same sweat shirts, also performed in the Poseidon show

at the council hearing. Poseidon officials and their consultants

apparently found the display beneath their position, for they did not

don sweat shirts and join the girls and workers as they led the

cheers for Poseidon. The majority of the council must have found this

display moving, for they voted for more Poseidon involvement in

Huntington Beach. I can hardly wait until Oct. 17 to see what

entertainment Poseidon has planned for the next showing of the City

Council.

Perhaps at that performance some of the Huntington Beach Wetlands

Conservancy’s leaders supporting Poseidon’s desalination plan will

treat the council to delicacies from the Pacific boiled by AES.

JOHN F. SCOTT

Huntington Beach

Desalination plants are the future

I seriously doubt if the anti-everything groups could succeed in

obtaining enough signatures to place a recall initiative on the

ballot regarding the Poseidon plant. However, should they succeed as

they did with anti-Wal-Mart Measure I, the result would repeat

itself. This silent majority are not so silent when these naysayers

try deceptive means to hoodwink the voters as the anti-Wal-Mart

forces tried to do. Desalination plants will soon be the norm along

our California coast, especially the southern portion. Those that

recognize reality and deal with it head-on will prevail as usual.

BOB POLKOW

Huntington Beach

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

If you could make just one argument to the City Council about

Poseidon, what would it be? Call our Reader’s Hotline at (714)

966-4691 or send e-mail to [email protected]. Please

spell your name and include your hometown and phone number for

verification purposes.