OCWD Board Blocks Poseidon Study & Misleads State Commission

Note: The Surf City Voice was destroyed by hackers in December, 2019 and is under reconstruction. This story was first posted February 14, 2018.

By John Earl

Surf City Voice

(Minor editing was conducted on this story Feb. 17 for clarity)

Representatives of the Orange County Water District gave false information at a public hearing of the California State Lands Commission to push a proposed $1 billion ocean desalination plant closer to final approval.

OCWD President, Denis Bilodeau

The OCWD manages the Santa Ana River Basin and provides north Orange County with 75 percent of its water.

The developer, Poseidon Resources, wants to build the desal plant on state-owned coastal land in southeast Huntington Beach. The plant would produce about 56,000 acre-feet of drinking water from local seawater per year under a 30 to 50-year take-or-pay contract with the OCWD.

The hearing was held in Huntington Beach last October 19. The SLC approved a supplemental Environmental Impact Report for the project and …