AES Dune & Wetland Restoration - Update on The California Water Board Vote

The California Water Board Votes to Extend Operation of the Redondo Beach Generating Station – The City of Redondo Beach Sues 

For many of us following this complex issue for years, even decades, Board Member Deirdre Brand provides an update on the most recent actions around the shutdown of operations and removal of the AES power plant. 

The South Bay Parkland Conservancy has been an active advocate for the removal of the AES power plant and power lines in order to build a park and landscape corridor. Residents of Redondo Beach have a once in a lifetime opportunity to eliminate “the major blighting influence” on our waterfront and add a substantial amount of parkland and open space to our “park poor” city. 

To reference the historical timeline: https://www.southbayparks.org/aes-power-plant-and-power-lines

At its meeting on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, the California Water Board (Water Board) unanimously voted to amend their Once-Through Cooling Policy (OTC Policy) and extend the operation of four coastal power plants, including the Redondo Beach Generation Station one of the oldest, and least efficient, power plants in the State of California.  The OTC Policy, initially adopted in 2010, was intended to protect marine life from the harmful effects of cooling water intake structures and to eliminate once-through cooling systems altogether by December 31, 2020.  Despite overwhelming opposition to extending operation of the Redondo Beach Generating Station from South Bay residents, the Cities of Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach, Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, Congressman Ted Lieu and Senator Ben Allen, numerous non-profit organizations (including SBPC), energy experts and current and previous local and statewide officials, the Water Board agreed to the extension.  After an eight-hour hearing, the Board not only voted to extend these operations but amended the OTC Policy to make further extensions easier, essentially abandoning the goals of the OTC Policy altogether.  On September 3rd, in response to this action, the Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously to sue the Water Board for violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for approving an extension to the compliance deadline without fully analyzing the environmental impacts of the extension.  

The Generating Station is located on a 50-acre parcel immediately adjacent to King Harbor Marina and bordered on the north by the City of Hermosa Beach.  The northeast half of the site is the location of what was known as the “Old Salt Lake” or “The Salt Pond”, a saline lake or salt pond created by a spring-fed lagoon that was used for salt harvesting, first by Native Americans and then in the late 1800s by the Pacific Salt Works company. (California State Landmark #373).  Despite over a century of industrial development and groundwater pumping, the site has continued to exhibit wetland characteristics to the present day (a 2016 report by the Coastal Commission identified almost 7 acres of active wetland on the site).  The City of Redondo Beach and the SBPC would like to restore the wetlands at the site to provide much-needed wetland habitat for protected plant and animal species and a place of refuge for birds along the Pacific Flyway.  This vote by the Water Board delayed and impeded our near-term plans to move this project forward.

The Generating Station was sold by the owner and operator AES Southland Development, LLC (AES) to a developer consisting of 17 LLC and one private owner in March 2020 (buyer).  As per the requirements of the OTC policy, the plant was to be shut down this December.  As such, in 2019, the buyer offered to remediate the power plant site and sell the City of Redondo Beach 25 acres of the approximately 50-acre site for $2,000,000 per acre.  The City of Redondo Beach, with help from the SBPC, raised almost six million dollars toward this end and had secured further funding commitments to develop a regional park amenity, native habitat and coastal wetlands on half of this site.  A consortium of state and county agencies, non-governmental organizations and the City were all invested in moving this option forward, which would have provided a compromise between the developer looking for entitlements and the City wanting open space and other coastal amenities.  However, the failure of planning and execution of the OTC Policy by the PUC and CAISO resulted in the buyer pulling the deal as soon as AES and the buyer were offered tens of millions of dollars to keep the plant on standby through at least 2021.  It is important to note that the AES property is zoned as public space with only conditional use for utilities; any development at this site would require entitlements and will be subject to a public vote thanks to Measure DD.  

The SBPC is deeply concerned by the actions of the Water Board.  The Board failed to conduct an adequate environmental analysis for this action (in fact, it was an exceptionally inadequate analysis and SBPC believes that the City will likely prevail in their CEQA action) and demonstrated an abdication of their own environmental obligations as a Lead Agency under CEQA and as a permitting agency under the Clean Water Act (CWA).  

As stated in the City of Redondo Beach’s press release, the Board “failed to conduct the required level of analysis under CEQA or mitigate the anticipated impacts caused by the extension.  Instead, it prepared a perfunctory statement, without supporting evidence, that concluded no new impacts would occur as a result of the OTC Policy extension.”  The Water Board also failed to present an alternative that excluded the Redondo Beach Generating Station from the OTC Policy extension – an alternative they agreed to evaluate in their July 2020 Board meeting in response to a request from the City of Redondo Beach as the PUC itself had provided a presentation that concluded that the Generating Plant was not needed (there was excess capacity in the grid without the Redondo site).  

The Water Board, self-admittedly, did not exercise their due diligence as the lead permitting agency under the CWA.  With their September 1st action, the Water Board agreed to continue the practice of automatically renewing extremely outdated CWA permits and mitigation requirements associated with operation of these facilities.  For example, in the last five years, five coastal power plants along the coast of California have damaged the marine environment, polluted the air and substantially contributed to climate change, and under the Water Board’s authority, paid a total of $3.25 million in mitigation fees.  The SBPC was extremely surprised to learn that the power plants have, collectively, paid the price of a relatively nice house in Hermosa Beach as full compensation for their significant impacts to the marine environment.  In fact, during the September 1st hearing the Water Board admitted that the mitigation was inadequate but went ahead and approved the action anyway without requiring any additional mitigation fees!  SBPC understands that California needs power but allowing the oldest and least efficient power plants in the state to violate the CWA and pollute without consequence, with no firm deadlines in sight, is a dereliction of duty.    

At present, the courts will decide how this plays out moving forward but SBPC will continue to assist the City in acquiring state and federal funds for purchase of up to 25 acres of the AES property.  SBPC will keep our readers informed of this issue moving forward and will call for support, when needed, to help ensure a new vision for the Generation Station site.  While we are disappointed with the Water Board’s decision, SBPC is still optimistic that the South Bay will find a way to restore this land back, and in time, for the enjoyment of both human and non-human occupants!

Are you interested in advocating for this issue alongside SBPC? Contact Deirdre Brand at deirdre@southbayparks.org