Action of the Month - March

Each month we will highlight one action you can do that will make a difference if you only have 15 minutes. This month, we suggest creating an AddUp account and registering your interest in stopping the ill-conceived desalination plant plan for the old AES plant in Huntington Beach, which is called Poseidon. Go to the AddUp campaign, crate an account as instructed and follow the instructions to join the Campaign to Stop the Poseidon Huntington Beach project. Watch the informative video, register and share your support on Twitter (or other platform where you have accounts). Help is reach the goal of 1000 supporters in California during March!

 

This proposed desalination plant has nothing to do with droughts or “water shortages”, because this plant sits on top of an aquifer that is already replenished with inexpensive water for the tertiary treatment of wastewater by the OC Sanitation Department. The proposal is simply a way to make money from an old ocean intake for an obsolete AES electric plant and then create a scheme where OC residents pay a much higher rate for water when the Poseidon expensive desal water is mixed in the aquifer with cheaper water from Orange County Sanitation’s inexpensive pure water replenishment. In addition to costing residents more for water they already have, the desalination brine will be harmful to the ocean environment. This is a Lose-Lose for the residents and environment, and your voice is needed stop this mistake from happening.

 

We have 100,000 supporters in Southern California, and each one is busy with their personal day-to-day life issues.  Most would take action if it was easy, so this is our goal on the Southern Sierra team. We have so many worthwhile actions where you can make a difference that it can be overwhelming, so we are choosing one item each month. Since this month’s Southern Sierran is focused on Water Issues and Water Day on March 22nd, we figured this water oriented AddUp campaign is a good place to start. The Coastal Commission hearing on the desal plans called Poseidon were postponed. The Coastal Commission has a whole landing page dedicated to the discussion. You can read more details on the Coastal Commission website on Poseidon Huntington Beach.

 

If you want to make a difference, our team curates a list of many environmental and sustainability-oriented campaigns on the chapter website landing page called “TAKE ACTION NOW”  There are many issues and a wide variety of ways to take action in support of an issue that appeals to you.

 

We realize that your time is short, and we want to help you achieve the greatest impact in making the world a better place with a few minutes you can dedicate to signing a petition or writing a letter or making a phone call, or attending a meeting.

 

Each month we will highlight a single action in the Southern Sierran that you can take if you have time to take only one action.

 

In each issue of the Southern Sierran,  we will regularly update our chapter’s homepage with THREE PRIORITY AddUp campaigns in case you have time for signing more than one petition or taking additional actions

 

Let us know if you have ideas for improving the convenience of taking action. Your small actions, combined with all of our members taking small actions can make a big impact!

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Header Image: Site of proposed Poseidon Desal Plant Huntington Beach, CA by John Nilsson