Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s Marine Life Destruction Will Continue Without Intervention
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant – a nuclear facility operated by PG&E in San Luis Obispo County, where visitors frequently spot sea otters – was set to go offline this year. Instead, California has made its intention clear to extend the nuclear plant’s operations until at least 2030 – but likely until 2045. The Otter Project is fighting this extension to ensure Diablo Canyon minimizes its harm to our coastal ecosystems and marine life.
A History of Harm
Diablo Canyon is the largest discharger of pollution in California and the most destructive facility to marine life along our coast. The facility uses once-through cooling technology, an antiquated practice of using seawater to cool generators, which intakes marine water so powerfully that they must scrape dead fish and marine mammals off the intake grates to ensure a consistent flow of water to the power plant. This disturbing and devastating practice impacts 46 miles of coastline out to 2 miles offshore, killing and endangering marine life in a 93-square-mile area.
In 2010, California adopted a Once-Through Cooling Policy to put an end to this harmful intake of seawater. The Policy required all facilities like Diablo Canyon to adopt the best available technology – one that would not trap and kill marine life – by 2024. Those technology updates have yet to be adopted, and now, the state will likely extend this practice by another 5 years at least.
Taking Action
This November, The Otter Project testified before the California Coastal Commission urging that the Commission deny the permits necessary to extend operations of Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. While our efforts were successful in November, the Commission did ultimately approve the permits for Diablo Canyon’s extension at their subsequent December meeting.
Now, Diablo Canyon must secure a permit from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board for its discharges into the ocean. Importantly, Diablo Canyon’s intake and discharge are located less than one mile from the Point Buchon State Marine Reserve and the adjacent Point Buchon State Marine Conservation Area, which together protect an ecologically diverse seascape of hundreds of marine species, sea birds, kelp forests, and mammals like sea otters and migrating whales.
Given Diablo Canyon’s location to such sensitive marine habitat, it is unacceptable that the Central Coast Water Board is considering Diablo Canyon to continue operations into the indefinite future without requiring it to meet the technology standards outlined by the Once-Through Cooling Policy. Moreover, until Diablo Canyon installs the proper technology, PG&E must be required to pay fees toward marine life management and restoration to fully mitigate for the harm they are causing the ocean. Luckily, this summer, The Otter Project prevented the Legislature from proposing last-minute legislation that would have diverted $76 million of these mitigation fees away from marine life restoration toward land acquisition.
The Otter Project has made these demands clear in a recent comment letter to the Central Coast Regional Board, and will continue to advocate for strong implementation of the policies designed to keep our marine environment thriving.