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Another Lawsuit Challenging Carlsbad Desal Plant

Two environmental groups have filed another lawsuit over the approval of the Carlsbad Desalination Project.

Two environmental groups have filed another lawsuit over the approval of the Carlsbad Desalination Project.

San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation are challenging the state lands commission's approval of a tidelands lease for the desalination plant.

Poseidon Resources needs the lease to use land next to the Encina Power Station.

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The groups says the commission acted without fully assessing the project's impacts as required by law.
The City of Carlsbad prepared an environmental review of the project in 2006.

But the lawsuit says the lands commission needed to look at the project and include any changes since the city's original approval two years ago.

San Diego Coastkeeper legal director Gabriel Solmer says the lands commission analysis was inadequate.

She says the agency didn't take into account information from the California Coastal Commission.

Solmer says the coastal commission determined that the desalination plant will impact the equivalent of at least 37 acres of sensitive lagoon habitat, and discharge at least 97,000 metric tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

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