Water Insecurity: Desalination Discussion Could Shape Future Policy

STATEWIDE — California Coastal Commission’s final meeting of 2017 is expected to be a little salty, as the quasi-judicial agency’s staff is expected to make an informational presentation on seawater desalination, Dec. 13. Specifics of presentation were unknown at the time this editorial was written, and commissioners won’t be taking any sort of action on whatever they do discuss. Yet the presentation’s timing is not random or coincidental – plans to build a massive desalination plant on the Huntington Beach coast could be in front of the Coastal Commission in the not too distant future. Poseidon’s desalination plant plans cleared its first significant regulatory hurdle in October, when the State Lands Commission tossed its support in favor of the saltwater conversion venue. Two more approvals are needed before Poseidon can dig a shovel in the ground and begin construction. One of those two approvals must come from the Coastal Commission. Perhaps the upcoming presentation will give us some insight as to what the Coastal Commission would require of Poseidon. We won’t know specifics, to be sure, of the commission’s position, as the Dec. 13 informational presentation is neither a deliberation nor a case for or against Poseidon’s plans. What the Coastal Commission can do...