You need a hunting license before you go hunting, a marriage license before you get married and the Poseidon desalination project needs to get their permits before they are allowed to operate.
Poseidon has asserted (with no evidence) that building a state of the art plant to minimize damage they will do to the sea life and the ocean is too expensive. Without any proof, they claim that slant wells, infiltration galleries, subsurface intakes, and removing the salt from their discharge, are too expensive.