Community Groups Demand Water Board Reject S.F. Power Plant “Permit to Pollute”

(Oakland) – Community groups and elected officials of San Francisco will demand on Wednesday that the regional water board reject a proposal allowing the Mirant Co. Potrero power plant to continue using an old cooling system which kills an estimated 290 million larval fish annually and discharges pollution that threatens the health of local residents.

What: Public hearing and vote of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Region, on the Potrero Power Plant discharge permit. Community and city leaders propose alternative cooling system to protect Bay.

Who: Communities for a Better Environment, Bay View Hunters Point Community Advocates, San Francisco Baykeeper, and city officials.

Where: First Floor Auditorium, Harris State Building, 1515 Clay Street, Oakland (near 12th Street Oakland City Center BART)

When: Wednesday, May 10, 2006, 9:00 am.

Each day, the Potrero Power Plant sucks in 226 million gallons of bay water to cool its system. The process kills hundreds of millions of larval fish and other aquatic life each year. It also discharges heated wastewater which stirs up polluted sediments containing cancer-causing PCBs and mercury. Mirant’s own consultant has acknowledged that this discharge is harming the Bay.

CBE believes that the water board’s proposal would violate Bay protection laws, and has joined the City, Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, and San Francisco BayKeeper to propose an alternative Community Permit that grants Mirant a reasonable schedule to install modern upland cooling, which would eliminate impacts to the Bay.

Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is an environmental health and justice non-profit organization promoting clean air, clean water and the development of toxin-free communities through community empowerment.