Underground Construction - June 2022 - 11

California Coastal Commission
rejects bid for $1.4B
desalination plant
The California Coastal Commission has voted
unanimously against approving a permit for
the Poseidon Water desalination facility in
Huntington Beach. The $1.4 billion project had
been in the works for two decades.
In denying Poseidon a permit, the
commission demonstrated its independence
from Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration - a
supporter of the plant. The decision signaled that
high costs, vocal opposition and hazards such as
sea-level rise can present major hurdles for large
desalination plants on the California coast.
The project would've provided 50 million
gallons of drinking water for Orange County
residents every day by using reverse osmosis
to remove the salt from ocean water,
according to Poseidon Water.
However, the project encompassed a
list of contentious issues including the
proposed plant's eff ects on marine life,
its vulnerability to sea-level rise and the
company's heavy political lobbying.
Poseidon's opponents argued the desalinated
water is unnecessary because northern Orange
County already has ample groundwater supply
and is recycling its wastewater. They said the
project would only benefi t Canadian parent
company Brookfi eld Infrastructure and its
investors, while low-income people would be
hit especially hard by rate increases.
The company said the costs had yet to be
fi nalized but that monthly water rates could
increase by roughly $3 to $6 per household. The
commission's staff concluded that despite a lack
of detailed information on costs, the water rate
hike for the project " would disproportionately
impact millions of low-income residents. "
Los Angeles wastewater tunnel
receives $441 million EPA loan
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has awarded a $441 million loan to Los Angeles
County to replace a pair of aging wastewater
tunnels that are at risk of failure during severe
storms and earthquakes.
The Water Infrastructure Finance and
Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan will be used to
combine the two aging outfall tunnels into
one new 18-foot diameter, 7-mile-long tunnel
designed to current seismic standards. The
UCONonline.com | JUNE 2022
11
completed tunnel will have a greater capacity
for high fl ows than the existing tunnels.
The existing tunnels - built in 1937
and 1958 - are responsible for carrying
effl uent from the Sanitation Districts' largest
wastewater treatment plant but are beyond
their useful life and do not meet current
seismic standards, according to the EPA.
The agency warned that if the tunnels fail
in the event of a storm or earthquake, the
treatment plant might need to discharge sewage
into surrounding waterways
The EPA estimates that Los Angeles County
will save about $76 million by fi nancing with
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