EDISON TOLD IT MUST RESTORE WETLANDS : DAMAGE CAUSED BY SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR PLANT PROMPTS ORDER.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. Co. was ordered to restore 150 acres of wetlands in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. County rather than implement a cheaper proposal that also involves Orange and Ventura counties. Under the California Coastal Commission's decision Thursday, Edison must clean up damage caused by its San Onofre nuclear power plant to the San Dieguito Lagoon in Del Mar and build a 150-acre reef off the coast of the facility, between San Clemente and Camp Pendleton. Edison will have to pay about $113.4 million for damage to areas south of Orange County. The utility had tried to reduce mitigation costs by proposing a plan that includes the restoration of 150 acres of wetlands at Ormond Beach in Ventura County. Another power plant is located on the wetlands acreage it offered to clean up. Environmentalists and San Diego officials had called Edison's alternative plan unacceptable because of the damage the San Onofre plant caused. Edison officials struggled to accept the commission's decision. ``We are still trying to figure out what happened last night in terms of our options,'' said Dan Pearson, Edison senior biologist. In 1991, Edison initially agreed with the Coastal Commission to restore 150 acres of wetlands near the Del Mar racetrack Del Mar Racetrack is an American thoroughbred horse racing track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the seaside city of Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it is known for the slogan, "Where The Turf Meets The Surf. to repair damage done to sea life by the San Onofre plant, which sucks in 1.6 million gallons of seawater seawater Water that makes up the oceans and seas. Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5% water, 2.5% salts, and small amounts of other substances. Much of the world's magnesium is recovered from seawater, as are large quantities of bromine. a minute. Then Edison pitched its alternative plan last year. ``It's not a matter of us not wanting to share,'' said Diane Coombs Coombs can refer to:
Meanwhile, environmentalists in Oxnard were disappointed yet understanding of the commission's decision. ``Environmentalists are really concerned about mitigation at the site where the damage occurred. I would have loved money to have come, but I could not in good conscience support it'' coming to Ormond Beach, said Roma Armbrust, head of the Ormond Beach Observers, an environmental watchdog group. |
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