Media Release: September 8, 2004
Contact: Albert Huang, (619) 235-0281

EHC demands an end to deadly power
Coalition of environmental organizations calls for action today

(San Diego) – For over 40 years, the South Bay Power Plant (SBPP) has devastated San Diego Bay’s ecosystem with thermal and chemical pollution, killing a wide range of fish and other sensitive marine life when it uses the Bay water in its cooling system.

“The time for studies is over,” according to Albert Huang of the Environmental Health Coalition. “We know how the South Bay Power Plant is destroying San Diego Bay, and study after study has confirmed that. What we need now is decisive action by this Board to adopt a strong permit that will eliminate these impacts once and for all.” Huang plans to take this message to the Regional Water Quality Control Board this morning.

On Sept. 8th the Regional Water Quality Control Board will meet to decide on the conditions for a new water discharge permit for the South Bay Power Plant, operated by Duke Energy. Although the permit drafted by the staff of the Regional Board calls for a few improvements over the old one, it essentially allows the plant to continue to operate “as is” while more studies are completed on the health of the Bay.

Environmental Health Coalition will be joined by other members of the San Diego Bay Council to demand that the permit be significantly amended to give clear, stringent, and direct requirements to all aspects of monitoring, compliance, and operations of the plant. Also representing the San Diego Bay Council will be Gabriel Solmer, Staff Attorney, San Diego BayKeeper; Ed Kimura, San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club; Jim Peugh, San Diego Audubon Society; Bruce Reznik, Executive Director, San Diego BayKeeper; Marco Gonzalez, Chair, San Diego Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

In addition, community residents will share with the Board their first hand experiences on the issue. According to Sharon Floyd, a long-time resident of Chula Vista, "The lower San Diego Bay was once a vital and vibrant nursery for all the small creatures that are the basis of the food chain on which all wildlife in our region depend. The placement of the SBPP in the midst of this sensitive and critical ecosystem was a gigantic blunder that has wreaked havoc to that ecosystem for far too long."

The plant’s effects are well documented, and the lack of concrete preventive actions is in clear violation of the law. In 2003, Dr. Richard Ford, a SDSU Professor Emeritus and local expert on San Diego Bay, released a report documenting the plant’s impact and recommended limitations on the plant’s discharge in order to protect the Bay. In 2004, Duke Energy, the operator of the plant, released its own studies on the impacts of the plant on the Bay. Both studies confirm that the SBPP kills a significant percentage of marine life that gets drawn into its cooling system or exposed to the chlorine or high temperatures of the plant’s discharges.

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Representatives from the San Diego Bay Council organizations and members of the community will be available after the hearing to comment on the Board’s decision.

Environmental Health Coalition is dedicated to environmental and social justice. We believe that justice is achieved when empowered communities act together to make social change. We organize and advocate to protect public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. EHC supports efforts that create a just society and that foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life.

The San Diego Bay Council is a coalition of San Diego environmental organizations dedicated to protection and restoration of San Diego’s coastal water resources. Its members are Environmental Health Coalition, San Diego Baykeeper, Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Chapter, San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club, San Diego Audubon Society, and Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association.