Coastal Defenders Needed Stop Poseidon in Huntington Beach on May 12!

The California Coastal Commission hearing on Poseidon’s proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant will take place on Thursday, May 12 at 9am in Costa Mesa. We can participate in person or online. Given recent lobbying expenditures, we have reason to believe Brookfield-Poseidon is trying to bring a crowd of supporters to the May 12th hearing. Let’s bring an even larger one. CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

The hearing will be our best shot at defeating the harmful Poseidon Huntington Beach desalination proposal once and for all. Unlike previous agencies that have ruled on Poseidon, the Coastal Commission has a specific mission of enforcing the Coastal Act to protect our coast. The proposed Poseidon seawater desalination plant violates the Coastal Act. Of course, Poseidon’s fancy lobbyists will be all over the Coastal Commission and we need your help to push back.

Please consider attending the meeting in person!

• Date:  Thursday, May 12th, 2022 at 9AM
• Location:  Hilton Orange County, Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Fountain Terrace Conference Room
• Speaker Slips: Click here to directly register with the Coastal Commission to speak virtually on May 12 if you cannot attend in person! (specify item 9a)
• Staff Report: The Coastal Commission staff report is available here, item Thursday 9a-10a.

To request to speak in person or online at the meeting, you must submit a virtual speaker card no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11. We suggest getting your speaker card in as early as possible! The agenda, staff report and hearing procedures are posted here. Sign up HERE TO RSVP - by signing up at this link, you will have access to our VIP activists conference room and free lunch. We will also send you more information and instruction on how to submit a speaker slip to the Coastal Commission.

Key Speaking Points:

• Unneeded, highly priced water is harmful to environmental justice communities, small businesses and all ratepayers. Better alternatives exist!
• Harmful brine discharge will harm marine life and toxins may accumulate near shore! 
• No local water companies have committed to buying the water, its unneeded and unaffordable and may decrease drinking water quality.
• Selling on fear factor because of a drought. The plant is only capable of fulfilling the needs of 10% of the county residents...and we have much less harmful alternatives in Orange County such as expanding our water recycling facility, improving water use efficiency and conservation!
• The plant would be located in low-lying wetlands, perpetuating industrialization of the coast and limiting the City's ability to adapt to sea level rise. It would become an inaccessible island with just one foot of sea level rise!
• County recycling system and replenishment system is a model for the U.S. County residents are using less water now per household than over 20 years ago! They have learned how to conserve.
• For more information on this harmful project, check out this blog.

Here's a little more information, for those interested:

The proposed Poseidon Huntington Beach desalination facility would be an enormous loss for the coast and ocean in Huntington Beach and beyond. The plant would be located in historic wetlands – perpetuating industrialization of the coast and limiting the region’s ability to adapt to sea level rise. Wetlands would also otherwise provide carbon sequestering benefits, and the plant’s organism trapping, open ocean intakes will be within fifty miles of nine state marine protected areas. 

It’s also a bad investment in the future cost of water – the plant would be subject to sea level rise and may become an inaccessible island with just one foot of sea level rise and need constant maintenance during its 50 year lifetime.  Check out the simulation below for the latest sea level rise modeling and its related impacts to the plant. It’s also available in a 3-D interactive version and in Spanish here!

This project needs to be stopped. For these reasons and more, the project is inconsistent with the California Coastal Act and Huntington Beach’s Local Coastal Program, and the Coastal Commission cannot grant Poseidon a permit for the project.

For more information and more reasons why we oppose this project – check out this deeper dive!