San Diego environmental groups aren’t taking no for an answer when it comes to the Carlsbad desalination plant.
San Diego Coastkeeper and The Surfrider Foundation have filed an appeal of a Superior Court decision that backs the State Lands Commission’s 2008 approval of the plant. The action moves the issue up to the Appellate Court. Gabriel Solmer is the Legal Director for Coastkeeper. She says the process used for approving the desalination plant sets a bad precedent.
“We’re concerned that if this model acts as precedent, then decision makers and the public won’t really have the best information in determining how to approve coastal development,” she says.
Solmer says the 2006 environmental impact report used for the project is outdated. A plant spokesman says project opponents have used similar arguments in every appeal they have filed. All of those challenges have failed.
