Councilman weighs desalination project

Dave Brooks

Facing the first major policy test of his political career, City

Councilman Don Hansen isn’t giving any indication which way he’ll go

on a controversial desalination project proposed for southeast

Huntington Beach.

In recent weeks, a stream of reports have surfaced critical of an

environmental analysis of a plan by Poseidon Resources to build a

facility capable of producing 50 million gallons of drinking water

per day. It is such concerns that will weigh on his decision whether

to certify the group’s environmental report at the council’s Sept. 6

meeting, he recently said

For months, all eyes have been on the political rookie and USC

grad. Many see Hansen as being torn between pro-business, Republican

supporters of Poseidon and his own neighbors in southeast Huntington

Beach, who fear the facility will negatively impact their quality of

life.

“This and the open space issues are going to be his and the other

new council members’ test as to where they’re coming from,” said Ed

Kerins, former president of Huntington Beach Tomorrow, a civic

activists group.

During the 2004 election, Hansen ran on a platform of greater

representation for southeast neighborhoods.

“I made a commitment to do good things for southeast Huntington

Beach and I’m going to follow through on them,” he said.

Many activists are operating under a false assumption that his

decision is tied to his relationship to a certain group, he said.

Instead, Hansen said, his choice will be based on his own reading of

Poseidon’s environmental report and the comments he receives on its

credibility.

“My motivations are pure, and I’ll make the best decision that I

can,” he said. “I don’t take home mountains of material, because I

take this stuff lightly.”

That material includes a recent stinging analysis by Municipal

Water District of Orange County engineer Richard Bell, who said that

some statements in the environmental report were “misleading,

incorrect and self-serving.”

Bell took issue with a clause in the alternatives section of the

report which indicated that not moving ahead with the project would

not meet the area’s water objectives.

Bell wrote that the assertion was false because the water district

already has a plan in place to deal with water needs for the next 20

years, and the desalination plant is essentially an alternative to

that plan.

Poseidon executive Billy Owens said the district “was splitting

hairs” and argued that he sees the plant as a component of the water

master plan.

That plan does call for desalination facilities in Orange County,

including potentially Huntington Beach, but suggests that those

facilities be built by public agencies.

“All we’re doing is implementing that plan, but we’re saying ‘Hey,

we want to be a part of it,’” Owens said.

QUESTION

How do you want the City Council to vote on the proposed Poseidon

desalination facility? Leave your thoughts on our Readers Hotline at

(714) 966-4664, fax us at (714) 966-4667 or e-mail us at

[email protected]. Please include your name and city

where you live.