Public testimony, research and community organizing by Environmental Health Coalition’s Clean Bay Campaign and the San Diego Bay Council has forced the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board to reexamine the environmental impacts of the South Bay Power Plant.

In December, EHC and the Bay Council released a report entitled Deadly Power that demonstrates the severity of the power plant’s negative environmental impacts. The report exposes the inadequacy of the plant’s current permit.

The Regional Board postponed a vote on the permit in December after receiving copies of Deadly Power and activist letters. In addition, letters of support for a more stringent permit were filed from Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy, Port of San Diego Commissioners Stephen Cushman and Peter Janopaul, San Diego Councilmember Scott Peters and Donna Frye, Imperial Beach Councilmember Patricia McCoy, Chula Vista Councilmember Mary Salas, and Michael Shames, Executive Director of the Utility Consumers’Action Network. Members from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (H.E.R.E.) Union, Local #30 also attended the meeting in December and spoke in support of EHC’s position.

The South Bay Power Plant processes 20 percent of the water in south San Diego bay every day. Heat and chlorine from the plant’s cooling system are killing sensitive marine life. It’s time to stop the cooling that kills!

Show your support for a healthy San Diego Bay by attending the Regional Board permit hearing on June 12,2002. The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Regional Board offices, 9174 Sky Park Court, Suite 100, San Diego.

Meeting dates and times are subject to change, so contact Clean Bay Campaign Organizer Nohelia Ramos at (619) 235-0281 or email NoheliaR@environmentalhealth.org prior to the meeting date.