COSTA MESA, Calif.—The California Coastal Commission on May 12 unanimously rejected the Poseidon desalination project in Huntington Beach, which was proposed in 1998 but now appears to be dead.
During the May 12 coastal commission meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa, Coastal Commission staff recommended commissioners reject the plant, primarily citing potential negative impacts on marine life and the environment.
“[The] difficulty is that these impacts are largely invisible to us,” Tom Luster, the commission’s environmental scientist, said during the meeting. “This loss of [marine life] productivity will be substantial and will occur continually—but offshore and beneath the water surface. If this type of scale of impact were to happen on land, it will be highly visible and alarming.”
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