Lawsuit leads to cut in Poseidon desalination subsidy and more
Posted by George J Janczyn on June 14, 2011
[updated June 16–see bottom]
As predicted here one year ago (“San Diego County Water Authority water pricing lawsuit could jeopardize funding for Carlsbad Desalination Plant“), the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) has moved to terminate an agreement that would have paid a subsidy of $250 per acre foot (potentially $14M annually) to Posiedon and the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) for water produced at the Carlsbad Desalination Plant. According to the SDCWA news release, “The MWD board also instructed its staff to refuse to consider any pending or future local supply development projects in San Diego County. The pending agreements included the Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Project, which would have been eligible for up to $14 million in annual payments.” SDCWA said MWD’s action was retaliation for its lawsuit filed last year challenging MWD’s water rates.
Other MWD conservation rebates were also affected.
Here are news releases from both parties and local news reports:
A few days ago, the Sacramento Bee had this observation on the dispute: Warring water agencies should tone down rhetoric.
June 16: MWD move will not affect Carlsbad desalination, says Poseidon
Please see also the June 16 update to this story
This entry was posted on June 14, 2011 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Poseidon Desalination Plant (Carlsbad), San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), Water, Water conservation, Water desalination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
GrokSurf's San Diego 
Watcher said
How about CWA’s San Vincente Dam raise project? Does that project depend on MWD subsidies? Will it be affected by this?
George J. Janczyn said
The San Vicente dam raise project is financed as part of the Water Authority’s Emergency Storage Project, which itself is part of the Capital Improvement Program. Money for that is raised through the sale of bonds. I’m not aware of any MWD involvement there.