San Diego Coastkeeper
How You Can Help
Press Releases
San Diego Baykeeper
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
| Press Contacts | |
|---|---|
| Bruce Reznik | (619) 758-7743 (619) 851-9997 (cell) |
| Gabriel Solmer | (619) 758-7744 |
San Diego Regional Water Board Adopts New Discharge Permit for South San Diego Bay Power Plant
Decision Comes After Three-Year Battle Between Environmental Groups and Duke EnergySAN DIEGO, CA – San Diego Baykeeper and a coalition of environmental organizations known as the San Diego Bay Council celebrated the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board's decision to adopt a renewed permit for the South Bay Power Plant (SBPP). The SBPP, currently owned and operated by Duke Energy, has been operating under a 1996 discharge permit which was supposed to be renewed in 2001.
"The renewed permit represents a dramatic improvement over the 1996 permit, and it will result in better protection of the health of the Bay and surrounding communities," noted Gabriel Solmer, Baykeeper's Staff Attorney. "The renewed permit sets more stringent discharge limits for copper, more effectively regulates thermal discharges from the plant, begins to address strategies to reduce the impact of impingement and entrainment on fish populations, and requires a more complete monitoring program for the facility."
The SBPP has operated on San Diego Bay for over 40 years, predating many of the regulations that govern today's power plants, allowing cleaner, safer and more efficient operations. The current plant’s cooling system essentially sterilizes up to 601 million gallons a day of South San Diego Bay water. Baykeeper and other members of the San Diego Bay Council (Environmental Health Coalition and the San Diego Chapters of The Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club and Audubon Society) have been fighting for a more protective discharge permit that will require the plant to lessen impacts on the Bay and local communities.
"Newer 'dry-cooling' technologies exist that would eliminate impacts to San Diego Bay, operate more efficiently, reduce air pollution, and remove one of the worst visual blights on the community, paving the way for more environmentally- and community-friendly development in the region," stated Baykeeper's Executive Director Bruce Reznik. "We hope this permit provides the impetus for moving to a state-of-the-art power plant that will allow South Bay communities to flourish environmentally and economically."
While a vast improvement over the 1996 permit, environmental groups were disappointed that many of the provisions of the permit will not go into effect for three years, and discharge limits were not set for dissolved oxygen, temperature or residual chlorine.
"The permit as adopted after a three-year battle represents a compromise between environmental concerns, community needs, state energy policy, and protecting business interests," added Solmer. "We hope that Duke Energy now puts its energy into complying with the adopted permit rather than fighting this decision in the courts."
###