CLOSER TO HOME, on Tuesday at 5:15 P.M. and again at 7:00 P.M. in Huntington Beach, the HB Planning Commission will be considering the so-called "poseidon" desalination plant connected to the infamous AES power plant in HB.

PLEASE ATTEND:
STUDY SESSION 5:15 p.m. (public comment welcome, 4 minutes) (held in room B-8 next to the HB City Council Chamber) TELEVISED PLANNING COMMISSION 7:00 (public comment very important) (held in the HB City Council Chamber) 2000 Main St. in Huntington Beach, at the SE corner of Yorktown and Main. From 405, get off at Euclid, go west on Ellis, Ellis turns into Main St., proceed on Main St. to Yorktown. City Hall is on the left, HB High is on the right. Parking is free.

PLEASE SEND IN WRITTEN OBJECTIONS
It is very important for future lawsuits to stop this desal plant that the connection to Saddlecreek, Saddlecrest, Saddleback Meadows, and Rancho Mission Viejo be made explicit. These comments are even more important than the oral testimony.

CONNECTION: DESAL PLANT WATER MAKES SADDLECREEK POSSIBLE
Where will the massive new tracts get their water? To forstall such objections, the idea of unlimited new water supplies from desal plants is broached. Whether or not the water ever actually materializes, there is a letter of intent with Rancho Marguerita Water District, and the water is already referred to as allocated to Saddlecreek by some commentators. The hidden downside of these proposed, and perhaps problematic, desal plants is the unfunded liability of new construction, degradation of the environment, and new residents, new traffic, more schools, police, fire, sewage, electric, gas, street, park and other utilities that WE THE TAXPAYER must fund.

POSEIDON INDUSTRIES BACKGROUND
Strategy is to locate reverse osmosis desal plants where an existing outfall is already permitted. They have little resources, and only one plant in FLA which apparently recently was bailed out by the city. They seem to be in the business of arranging long-term permits and contracts with water wholesale agencies, such as the Rancho Marguerita Water District, which will enable these agencies to state that they have contracts for the water necessary for giant new tracts. Some speculate that the operating costs of the desal plants make it impossible to stay in operation for the long term, but once the tracts are permitted, the fate of the desal plant is not relevant.

BOND FUNDING REQUIRED IF IT FAILS, AND OTHER ISSUES
In case the desal plant fails, who will pay to pull out all that reinforced concrete? The company might fold, and, once again, the taxpayer would be stuck with the bill. No one has yet succeeded in making desal water plants economically viable, why should we be the guinea pig?

The desal plant, if by some chance it were to be successful, would have the bad effect of making it difficult to remove that outfall and that steam plant, which some day should be moved from the Coast. Desal has no place on our already crowded coastline, in my opinion.

Desal water is 5-9's pure, will leach lead, and toxins out of older water pipes and will lead to other problems not anticipated by HB. These facts were brought up by another water district official, it was NOT in the original EIR and should require a "Subsequent EIR" due to new facts uncovered. This requires the entire hearing process.

/Doug
562-430-2495

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