Back in May, we fact checked the Environmental Health Coalition’s claim that the South Bay Power Plant would close in December. That assertion, we noted, was misleading, because the fight over the plant’s future isn’t over.
Since then, the National City-based environmental group has softened its once-definitive statement about the plant’s future. From a recent KPBS story about Dynegy filing a new permit application:
[A]t a recent regional water board meeting, it appeared the South Bay Power Plant had received its last discharge permit and the facility was headed for demolition.
Laura Hunter, with the Environmental Health Coalition in National City, says that seems uncertain now.
One of the plant’s key operating permits, which allows it to discharge water into San Diego Bay, expires in December. It’s needed for the plant to continue running.
The company that runs the plant, Houston-based Dynegy, can apply for a new permit, and if granted, it could run next year.
The California Independent System Operator, which maintains the state electricity grid, expects to decide in September or October whether the plant must continue operating in 2011 and wants Dynegy to have the permit if it’s needed.
— ROB DAVIS