Environment

State Agency Considers Revoking Permit For Carlsbad Desalination Plant

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published December 9, 2009 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

The California Coastal Commission is considering a request by environmental groups to revoke a development permit for a company that wants to build a desalination plant in Carlsbad.

On Thursday, the Coastal Commission will consider revoking Poseidon Resources' coastal development permit. The revocation request was filed by the Surfrider Foundation and two other groups.

Marco Gonzales is with the Encinitas-based Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation. He says Poseidon Resources withheld information from the state Coastal Commission.

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"Basically they didn't disclose all of the data that they had in their possession regarding just how harmful this plant would be," says Gonzalez.

Gonzales says the desalination plant would trap and kill more fish than disclosed to the coastal commission.

Scott Maloni with Poseidon Resources says the revocation request is "a last ditch effort" by opponents of seawater desalination to stop the project. He calls the action "frivolous and without merit."

Poseidon has started preparing the site for construction but, if the request is granted, the company would have to stop construction and reapply for a new permit.

Maloni says that, when completed, the desalination plant will have the capacity to convert seawater into 50 million gallons of drinking water each day.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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