Poseidon Donates Legal Costs Recovered from Surfrider Foundation to Agua Hedionda Lagoon

San Diego, CA – Poseidon Resources today announced that it has recovered $3,932.64 in legal costs from the Surfrider Foundation as compensation for the failed lawsuits against the Carlsbad Desalination Project. Poseidon Resources has donated the funds to the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation to further the Foundation’s environmental stewardship and educational efforts.

“Poseidon Resources is pleased to donate these legal costs to a worthy organization like the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation. The Foundation is an established and respected coastal organization with a track record of real, tangible environmental stewardship,” said Scott Maloni, Vice President of Poseidon Resources. “The donation is our way of ensuring that these misguided lawsuits produce something positive for the coastal environment,” said Maloni.
“Poseidon Resources has demonstrated time and again its commitment to preserving and protecting the Agua Hedionda Lagoon,” said Lisa Cannon-Rodman, Executive Director of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation. “We have a longstanding relationship with Poseidon Resources because we share a common interest in maintaining a healthy watershed and lagoon ecosystem. The Agua Hedionda Lagoon is an environmental and recreational treasure, and it will soon be the source of drinking water for three million San Diego County residents. We are very appreciative of Poseidon’s continued support of the Foundation’s efforts to protect this precious natural resource.”
The $3,932.64 donation comes from the Surfrider Foundation’s repayment of its share of the court costs stemming from litigation it brought against the project in conjunction with San Diego Coastkeeper. Court costs were required to be reimbursed by the litigants because all lawsuits filed against the project -and dismissed- were determined by the courts to be without merit.
In total, Coastkeeper and Surfrider have been responsible for 14 legal challenges (nine lawsuits and an additional five administrative permit appeals) to permits issued to the desalination project. Thirteen of the legal challenges have been dismissed. The fourteenth challenge – a Surfrider Foundation lawsuit appealing the California Superior Court’s June 2011 decision to uphold a permit condition approved by San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board – is pending but has no bearing on the project’s underlying Regional Board permit and no effect on the project’s financing and construction schedule.
In addition to providing San Diego County with 50 million gallons per day of drought-proof, high quality drinking water, the Carlsbad Desalination Project will have a tremendous impact on the regional economy. Once full-scale construction begins, the project will support over 2,400 jobs and contribute an estimated $350 million in local spending during construction and $50 million in annual spending throughout the region once the desalination plant operations begin in 2014. Poseidon is currently finalizing a water purchase agreement with the San Diego County Water Authority that covers the plant’s full 56,000 acre feet/year capacity. County Water Authority Board approval of the water purchase agreement will clear the way for the start of the next phase of project construction. 

Poseidon Resources specializes in developing and financing water infrastructure projects, primarily seawater desalination and water treatment plants. These projects are implemented through innovative public-private partnerships in which private enterprise assumes the developmental and financial risks. For more information on Poseidon Resources and the Carlsbad desalination plant visit our website at www.carlsbad-desal.com.