Suit unnecessary, not inexpensive

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• Cambria desalination plan dealt a blow

  Cambria desalination plan dealt a blow

  An Army Corps of Engineers’ project to test the soil and sample water near the mouth of Santa Rosa Creek is not consistent with the state’s rules and goals for the habitat and coastline there, the California Coastal Commission ruled during a hearing Dec. 9.

  Whether that unanimous decision will be a death knell for the proposed tests there — and ultimately for intake and outfall facilities for a Cambria Community Services District desalination plant — is yet to be determined.

  Such a plant would be located elsewhere, off the beach.

• Cambria directors to put alternatives to desalination back on the table

  Cambria directors to put alternatives to desalination back on the table

  The Cambria Community Services District — still reeling from the California Coastal Commission’s unanimous Dec. 9 vote against a series of sampling tests near the mouth of Santa Rosa Creek — is now seeking other possible locations from which to draw salty or brackish water into a desalination plant, and will also be taking a look at other possible alternatives for bringing stable new water supplies to town.

  CCSD directors and staff said Jan. 19 they also expect to consult soon with the district’s constituents and its project partner, the Army Corps of Engineers.

  Alternatives would be considered during federal-and- state level environmental studies being done for the district’s desalination project that, so far, doesn’t have a location from which to get salty water and into which to deposit the hypersaline brine that the desalination process produces.

• Nipomo revs up pipeline efforts

  Nipomo revs up pipeline efforts

  EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to include links for information on the water-shortage publicity campaign and opposition to the Santa Maria water pipeline project.

  Every day, when residents on the Nipomo Mesa fill up their coffee pots, irrigate their lawns or take a shower, they’re using water that comes from under their feet.

  Nipomo residents rely on water from an enormous underground aquifer that covers a surface area of about 256 square miles and serves parts of southern San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties.

• Settlement limits life of Carrizo Plain solar plant

  Settlement limits life of Carrizo Plain solar plant

  A 550-megawatt solar plant on the Carrizo Plain will be decommissioned after 35 years of operation and the area will be restored to its natural state as part of a lawsuit settlement.

  First Solar and two local activist groups announced the settlement, which would not only limit the life of the Topaz Solar Farm photovoltaic plant, but will also place a conservation easement on the land and provide an endowment for managing the land in perpetuity.

  “Combined with other off-site lands Topaz is conserving, this agreement will support the preservation of approximately 22,000 acres to be protected in perpetuity following the end of the project operations,” the company announced in a news release.

• Report proposes dividing Great Lakes, Mississippi

  Report proposes dividing Great Lakes, Mississippi

  Groups representing states and cities in the Great Lakes region on Tuesday proposed spending up to $9.5 billion on a massive engineering project to separate the lakes from the Mississippi River watershed in the Chicago area, describing it as the only sure way to protect both aquatic systems from invasions by destructive species such as Asian carp.