CARLSBAD – The long-running tug of war between a developer and the California Coastal Commission staff over the state's first large-scale ocean-water desalination plant continues this week as the two sides wrangle over environmental issues.

DETAILS:
California Coastal Commission meeting
WHEN:  9 a.m. Wednesday
WHERE:  Oceanside City Hall, 300 N. Coast Highway

In November, the commission tentatively approved a proposal by Poseidon Resources Inc. to build a plant in Carlsbad to desalinate 50 million gallons of seawater a day.

The approval came with 22 conditions.

Poseidon returns to the commission Wednesday with a plan to satisfy those conditions. If it goes well, the company hopes to get final approval to build the plant on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The most significant conditions address how to compensate for fish and small marine organisms that will be killed in the desalination process, and how to neutralize carbon emissions that will result from plant operations.

The commission's staff and Poseidon officials have a history of differences.

The staff rejected Poseidon's application four times before deeming it complete last August and ready to send to the commission – with a staff recommendation to deny the plan.

The commission approved Poseidon's application Nov. 15 on a 9-3 vote after an 8½-hour hearing that included speeches from public officials who supported the plant and environmental activists who opposed it.

Poseidon proposes building the Western Hemisphere's largest desalination plant on the grounds of the Encina Power Station, which draws ocean water from the lagoon to cool its steam generators.

The $300 million project would take 100 million gallons a day from the power plant's stream and demineralize half of it to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water a day. The other half would be returned to the cooling stream twice as salty, but it would be diluted to reduce the salt concentration before going back to the ocean.

Environmentalists oppose Poseidon's proposal because of the number of fish, larvae and small organisms that would be trapped and killed in the desalination process. The Surfrider Foundation and the Planning and Conservation League sued the Coastal Commission over its approval of the project, saying the proposed plant would harm marine life.

OVERVIEW
Background: The California Coastal Commission in November tentatively approved allowing Poseidon Resources Inc. to build a seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad that would produce 50 million gallons a day.

What's changing: Poseidon must get approval Wednesday from the commission on how 22 conditions placed on the proposal will be met.

The future: If approved, Poseidon's $300 million plant can begin construction next year and go into operation in 2011. It would provide 56,000 acre-feet of water, or about 8 percent of the amount the San Diego County Water Authority imported in 2006.

Online: To read the California Coastal Commission staff reports on the proposed desalination plant, go to uniontrib.com/more/coastalcomm.