Desalination Plant Should Be Nixed, California Report Recommends

The California Coastal Commission advised against a permit in a new report on a multinational company’s plans to build a desalination site in Orange County’s Huntington Beach.

The commission’s report, released Monday, was the latest development in a more than two-decades-long saga to construct a desalination plant. The report said Poseidon Water—a Brookfield Asset Management subsidiary behind the plans—should be denied a permit based on environmental, health, safety, and justice concerns.

The final decision hinges on a Coastal Commission vote set for May 12 to grant or deny a permit.

Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, ...