The proposed Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach will dramatically increase the cost of water, lower the water quality in our shared aquifer, and hurt local businesses. Help us oppose it.
Everyone is invited to give their input to the Orange County Water Board of Directors concerning the contract terms to build the plant. If you missed the last meeting, here is your chance to tell them NO again. Thanks to citizen’s efforts, Orange County Water District is taking a second look at the terms.
The proposed term sheet is a bad deal for Orange County! Perhaps most egregiously, it includes a ‘take or pay’ contract, committing ratepayers to buying expensive water and guarantees returns for Poseidon - whether we need it or not!
July 18, 2018 at 5:30 p.m at Orange County Water District Headquarters - 18700 Ward St. Fountain Valley, CA.
Come one, come all! If you are interested in attending and would like more information, contact Mandy Sackett at msackett@surfrider.org. Please also RSVP and share our Facebook event!
Background (courtesy or Residents for Responsible Desalination):
In May 2015 OCWD approved a Term Sheet (Round 1) to buy Poseidon’s desalinated water. The terms were decidedly in Poseidon’s favor. OCWD, after more than 4 years of study, had yet to decide where, how, and what to do with the desal water. Despite those unknowns and despite not having established a need for the desal water, OCWD had agreed to design, construct, own, and operate a desal distribution system. Preliminary estimates were from $100 – $400 Million—all at OCWD’s expense! And that would be on top of the cost of the expensive DESAL water. In that term sheet, the price of the desal water was indexed at the cost of imported water plus 20% after an MWD public subsidy of $475/AF was applied.
Sometime during the next 3-year period, OCWD and Poseidon determined the 2015Term Sheet was not workable. OCWD and Poseidon colluded to have secret meetings (23 in all) to hatch a revised Term Sheet (Round two). They sprung this 2018 Term Sheet on the public on June 1st with every intention to have the Board of Directors approve it on June 6, 2018. They were not prepared for the public’s ability to mobilize effective opposition to the project in 5 days.
We did, however and came out strong in opposition! So with red faces, the Board unanimously decided to postpone a vote to approve the 2018 Term Sheet until July 18, 2018 at a regularly scheduled Board meeting.
If OCWD lost Round 1 by decision, it lost Round 2 by TKO. The Terms set out in 2015 favored Poseidon. The Terms set out in 2018 could be described as onerous for us as ratepayers. The problems in the 2018 Terms are too many to list in a short message, so stay tuned for talking points in future emails.
In the meantime, please watch this video for more information. And this one for more reasons why Poseidon can’t be trusted.