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Desalinization Plant for San Diego05-29-09 | News

Desalinization Plant for San Diego

The project is to be built beside a power station on a coastal lagoon in the city of Carlsbad, just north of San Diego and about 90 miles south of Los Angeles. But critics cite major environmental drawbacks -- namely the harm to marine life from intake pipes that suck water into desalination plants and from the highly concentrated brine byproduct that gets discharged back into the ocean.

The biggest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, north of San Diego, can begin construction by year?EUR??,,????'?????<

The Carlsbad project ranks as the hemisphere?EUR??,,????'?????<

Environmental activists who have fought the project vowed to appeal this week?EUR??,,????'?????<

But critics cite major environmental drawbacks?EUR??,,????'?????<

Under the permit approved this week, Poseidon is required to create 55.4 acres of wetlands in Southern California as a breeding ground for fish and other organisms to offset the marine life killed by the plant?EUR??,,????'?????<

Opponents have challenged Poseidon in three lawsuits. And another agency that already granted approval, the state Coastal Commission, has said it may take a second look in light of information turned up in the water board?EUR??,,????'?????<

Poseidon said there was nothing further precluding them from proceeding to build the plant, and they expect the lawsuits to be resolved by then. But a lawyer for opponents said they would seek court orders to block construction while litigation or their appeal to the state water board was still pending. Desalination is common in parts of the Middle East, but large-scale plants are rare in the Western Hemisphere.

Source: ENN News