Doheny's 'kumbaya' moment means future ocean desalination projects will be smaller

Critics see Coastal Commission's approval as a negligent response to global warming. 'I don't drink Newsom's Kool-Aid,' says Native American speaker

Karl Seckel gives a tour of the Doheny pilot subsurface intake ocean desalination plant c. 2012

Still recovering from Post Poseidon Traumatic Stress Syndrome, but with a whiff of joyous delirium, the California Coastal Commission approved the proposed $140 million Doheny Ocean Desalination Project at its Oct. 13 public hearing.

Invoking Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate-change adaptation strategy, the Commission’s Senior Deputy Director, Dr. Kate Hucklebridge, expressed the cliché that “meeting California’s future water needs is a challenge that will require all the tools in the toolbox.”

“We believe that the project before you, although not perfect, provides a solid example that we can use in planning for future desalination,” she gushed.

Keith Van De Maaten, the general manager at a local water district, reminded the Commission that previously for-profit desal developers chose “to fight against the people of the state versus choosing to spend those energies toward finding appropriate solutions,” contrary to the South Coast Water District (SCWD), the public agency developing the Doheny project.

That partly explained the prevailing kumbaya mood at the meeting.

The much smaller and less environmentally impactful SCWD desal project is a sailor’s dream compared to the public/private cabal of compromised politicians from the Governor on-down that fought by hook and crook for the forever vanquished $1.5 billion Huntington Beach ocean desalination project.