Poseidon Proposes Additional Environmental Review for HB Desalination Project
Brian Lochrie
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA – Poseidon Resources today announced that the City of Huntington Beach is working on a Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) for its Huntington Beach Desalination Project (Project). The SEIR will analyze several issues including:
- The potential for a modification to the Project’s configuration that reflects the current proposed engineering, construction and operation.
- The potential marine life impacts if, at a future date, the Huntington Beach Desalination Project operates as a “stand-alone” facility and no longer uses the industrial waste water from the HBGS.
“Based on our experience permitting our Carlsbad desalination facility we have chosen to modify the configuration of our Huntington Beach Desalination Project and to have the City of Huntington Beach conduct the necessary environmental review now in order to avoid potential delays and inefficiencies down the road,” said Scott Maloni, Vice President of Poseidon Resources. “We have also asked the City to take this opportunity to analyze the impacts of operating the desalination plant independently of the power plant’s use of its cooling water system. In the future, these steps will save time and provide long-term operational certainty,” said Maloni.
The Huntington Beach Desalination Project is located on the site of the Huntington Beach Generating Station (HBGS), a 900 MW power plant and Orange County’s only in basin electrical generator. The proposed desalination project is being permitted to use the seawater discharge from the HBGS cooling system as its source water. In anticipation that the desalination facility will eventually outlive the power plant’s use of its seawater cooling system, the City’s SEIR will analyze potential environmental impacts of the Project if it operates as a “stand-alone” facility and draws its own seawater in through the existing infrastructure rather than rely on the industrial waste water of HBGS.
Poseidon Resources’ Carlsbad Desalination Project underwent a similar “stand-alone” desalination plant analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for a project with an identical design to the Huntington Beach facility. It was determined by the City of Carlsbad that there was no significant environmental impacts. The project then went on to receive all its necessary state and federal approvals from the State Water Board, State Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission. Construction on the Carlsbad Desalination Project began last week.
The SEIR analysis is expected to be completed by the City of Huntington Beach next spring, allowing time for the Project to obtain final permits from the State Lands Commission and Coastal Commission before the end of 2010. The Project is scheduled to begin construction in 2011 and be operational in 2013.
Poseidon Resources specializes in developing and financing water infrastructure projects, primarily seawater desalination and water treatment plants. These projects are implemented through innovative public-private partnerships in which private enterprise assumes the developmental and financial risks. For more information on Poseidon Resources and the company’s projects visit our websites at www.carlsbad-desal.com and hbfreshwater.com.