by Garth Meyer
The California Water Resources Control Board voted Tuesday to extend the use of four coastal power plants. Redondo Beach was not one of them, for reasons cited as the plant’s ownership and litigation concerns.
The waterfront AES plant is now within four and a half months of permanent closure, unless further action is taken by Dec. 31.
The plant was previously extended for two years in 2021.
“I’m very excited, I think the water board is doing the right thing,” said Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand. “Frankly, until the power plant and the powerlines are down, (I won’t) rest easy.”
The Aug. 15 water board vote put in three-year extensions for generating stations at Alamitos, Huntington Beach and Ormond Beach – because of board concerns about system-wide energy grid backup.
The state previously considered an option to also extend Redondo Beach but chose not to “because of land use challenges that would complicate extending its once-through cooling compliance date,” said Edward Ortiz, spokesman, Office of Public Affairs, Statewide Water Resources Control Board. “For example, the property upon which the (Redondo) power plant is located is no longer owned by its operator and there are covenants resulting from the sale of the property that may result in litigation should the compliance date be extended that would likely limit the operator’s ability to operate the plant beyond 2023.”
The Redondo Beach site is today the subject of lawsuits filed by its owner group against the city over the owners’ plans to develop it into largely housing and commercial space.
The owners filed for bankruptcy in February.
Mayor Brand and others have long advocated for the 51-acre property to be turned into a park.
California’s policy on the use of coastal waters for power-plant cooling, adopted in 2010, affected 19 plants along the coast, all of which used a once-through cooling process with ocean water. The water withdrawals have been found to damage marine life, as fish and mammals get trapped against intake screens and eggs and larvae are killed while drawn in by the cooling system.
Ten of the original 19 plants have been permanently retired.
Redondo Beach could be next.
“Anything can still change, as it has in the past,” said Brand.
The AES Redondo site includes a right-of-way for Southern California Edison power lines east on 190th Street.
The California Coastal Commission has stated that whatever happens to the AES property, at least six acres will be restricted for use as wetlands. ER
