Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Jerry’s power play

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, fresh off his “strong mayor” ballot victory, may have come up with a unique way to use the expensive reclaimed water that the City is capable of churning out at its North City Water Reclamation Plant near Westfield UTC shopping center. Opened in 1997, during the Susan Golding era, the controversial treatment plant, north of Miramar Road and along the east side of I-805, can produce 24 million gallons a day, but due to “limited demand for reclaimed water,” according to a City document, just 6 to 12 million gallons a day are actually treated to the purity level required for golf courses and industrial uses, a process that requires heavy city subsidies.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The rest is dumped into the Pacific via the City’s Point Loma treatment plant, the document says. The city council is currently spending $11.8 million to study the practicality of “toilet to tap,” a contentious plan touted by some environmentalists and sewage-treatment contractors to convert the treated sewage into drinking water at a new facility to be built near the current reclamation plant.

The mayor opposes that idea and apparently favors a possible alternative. But as is typical with the closed-mouth Sanders and his business backers — who like to work behind closed doors until they can engineer as close to a fait accompli as possible — the revelation comes not via news conference or neighborhood meeting. Instead it is to be found in a “request for proposal” quietly issued by the City on May 21 that “hereby invites power generation companies to submit proposals to develop and operate a natural gas–fired power plant” at an 80-acre site on Nobel Drive south of the water treatment plant. Under the mayor’s plan, the City would award a 50-year lease to build and operate a plant with “no less than 200 megawatts” of “electrical generating capacity.” Further details, including development costs, the City’s cut, and some thorny environmental issues, are left to would-be proposers.

“Electric power plants are often the largest users of reclaimed water, typically using well in excess of one million gallons per day of reclaimed water,” the document says, adding that “Power plants which use the newest and most efficient gas turbines along with cooling systems which rely on reclaimed water are considered by many to be the industry standard for environmental stewardship.” Whether neighbors will agree remains to be seen; so far at least, Sanders doesn’t appear ready to ask them about it. The request notes that the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex is “approximately 1/3 to 3/8 of a mile distant, directly to the west.” The nearest school, it says, is University City High, “about 3⁄4 of a mile to the southwest in Rose Canyon.”

Interested parties are invited to send their responses to Russ Gibbon, business development manager of the mayor’s Office of Economic Growth Services, by July 17. An early hint of interest may have come June 7, just a day before the election in which the mayor’s continued status as strong mayor was at stake, when Competitive Power Ventures of Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed $5000 to the Sanders-led campaign. According to its website, “The company currently has nearly 5,000 megawatts (MWs) of natural gas projects in various stages of development with plans for approximately 1,400 MWs to move into construction during the next 12 months.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Haunted Trail of Balboa Park, ZZ Top, Gem Diego Show

Events October 31-November 2, 2024
Next Article

Morricone Youth, Berkley Hart, Dark Entities, Black Heart Procession, Monsters Of Hip-Hop

Live movie soundtracks, birthdays and more in Balboa Park, Grantville, Oceanside, Little Italy

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, fresh off his “strong mayor” ballot victory, may have come up with a unique way to use the expensive reclaimed water that the City is capable of churning out at its North City Water Reclamation Plant near Westfield UTC shopping center. Opened in 1997, during the Susan Golding era, the controversial treatment plant, north of Miramar Road and along the east side of I-805, can produce 24 million gallons a day, but due to “limited demand for reclaimed water,” according to a City document, just 6 to 12 million gallons a day are actually treated to the purity level required for golf courses and industrial uses, a process that requires heavy city subsidies.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The rest is dumped into the Pacific via the City’s Point Loma treatment plant, the document says. The city council is currently spending $11.8 million to study the practicality of “toilet to tap,” a contentious plan touted by some environmentalists and sewage-treatment contractors to convert the treated sewage into drinking water at a new facility to be built near the current reclamation plant.

The mayor opposes that idea and apparently favors a possible alternative. But as is typical with the closed-mouth Sanders and his business backers — who like to work behind closed doors until they can engineer as close to a fait accompli as possible — the revelation comes not via news conference or neighborhood meeting. Instead it is to be found in a “request for proposal” quietly issued by the City on May 21 that “hereby invites power generation companies to submit proposals to develop and operate a natural gas–fired power plant” at an 80-acre site on Nobel Drive south of the water treatment plant. Under the mayor’s plan, the City would award a 50-year lease to build and operate a plant with “no less than 200 megawatts” of “electrical generating capacity.” Further details, including development costs, the City’s cut, and some thorny environmental issues, are left to would-be proposers.

“Electric power plants are often the largest users of reclaimed water, typically using well in excess of one million gallons per day of reclaimed water,” the document says, adding that “Power plants which use the newest and most efficient gas turbines along with cooling systems which rely on reclaimed water are considered by many to be the industry standard for environmental stewardship.” Whether neighbors will agree remains to be seen; so far at least, Sanders doesn’t appear ready to ask them about it. The request notes that the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex is “approximately 1/3 to 3/8 of a mile distant, directly to the west.” The nearest school, it says, is University City High, “about 3⁄4 of a mile to the southwest in Rose Canyon.”

Interested parties are invited to send their responses to Russ Gibbon, business development manager of the mayor’s Office of Economic Growth Services, by July 17. An early hint of interest may have come June 7, just a day before the election in which the mayor’s continued status as strong mayor was at stake, when Competitive Power Ventures of Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed $5000 to the Sanders-led campaign. According to its website, “The company currently has nearly 5,000 megawatts (MWs) of natural gas projects in various stages of development with plans for approximately 1,400 MWs to move into construction during the next 12 months.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dia de los Muertos Celebration, Love Thy Neighbor(Hood): Food & Art Exploration

Events November 2-November 6, 2024
Next Article

Haunted Trail of Balboa Park, ZZ Top, Gem Diego Show

Events October 31-November 2, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader