Tell Members of the Metropolitan Water District NOT to Award Poseidon $350 million in Public Subsidies!

A private water company is trying to get its hands on $350 million to fund an energy intensive and potentially harmful desalination plant in the city of Carlsbad. This private company is none other than the failed Poseidon Resources. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) will soon vote if it will provide $350 million in public money to subsidize the privately owned Poseidon Carlsbad Desalination Plant.

Poseidon's only other attempt at building a desalination plant was in 1999 in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Tampa Bay project was $40 million dollars over budget and failed to produce a reliable water supply to nearby communities. After Poseidon's partners went bankrupt, the publicly owned Tampa Bay Water Agency had to take over Poseidon's failed and expensive project. MWD needs to know that California cannot afford to pay for Poseidon's failures!

In addition to financial risks, Poseidon plans to use once through cooling, an antiquated and environmentally destructive technology, that could kill large quantities of fish and other marine life. The Carlsbad desalination plant is also projected to use more energy than all the households in the city of Carlsbad. It doesn't make sense to intensify energy demands and increase greenhouse emmissions when water conservation and water reuse initiatives have not yet been exhausted.

Tell the MWD that southern California ratepayers cannot afford to lose $350 million on an failed private company like Poseidon who plans to profit from our water resources. Instead, MWD should support environmentally friendly and less costly public projects, such as water conservation and water resuse.Take action today!