Environment

Carlsbad Desal Plant Gets Final Approval

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published May 13, 2009 at 9:15 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The desalination project is located at the Encina Power Station in the City of Carlsbad.

Carlsbad Desal Plant Gets Final Approval

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control board has approved a permit for a proposed desalination plant in Carlsbad. Poseidon Resources says they expect to start construction on the plant later this year. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The unanimous vote by the water quality control board apparently marks the end of a six-year regulatory process for Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources.

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The discharge permit requires the company to perform sustained monitoring of wetland restoration sites.

Scott Maloni with Poseidon Resources says after 14 public hearings the company is ready to break ground.

"We think that we have all the legal authority we need to move forward with project construction," Maloni says.

The state coastal commission has required Poseidon to restore 55 acres of wetlands as a condition for a development permit.

Marco Gonzalez with the Coast Law Group represents the Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper.

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Gonzalez has filed several lawsuits challenging the approvals process, several have been rejected, but two lawsuits are pending.

"This thing is far from over," Gonzalez says.

The desalination plant would be the largest in the western hemisphere and could produce 50-million gallons of drinking water a day by 2012.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

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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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