Nov 10, 2008 By San Diego Suburban News - La Jolla Light
Southern California Edison will formally announce today the completion of a 175-acre artificial giant kelp reef just north of San Diego County, which the utility calls the first environmental restoration project of its kind.
As the nation's largest artificial kelp reef, it is expected to serve as a model for similar projects, according to Edison executives. The project was designed to compensate for environmental damage caused by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
Edison will be required to monitor the reef's condition and conduct studies comparing its productivity with that of nearby kelp forests for about four decades.
The cost of construction and monitoring could approach $40 million and will be borne by Edison and other owners of nuclear plants, including San Diego Gas & Electric Co., according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
In addition to its habitat value, the reef may be alluring to local divers.
"Diving in a giant kelp gives you the same feeling as walking through a redwood forest. It's a special place,'' Ed Parnell, a marine ecologist at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, told the newspaper in June, when construction on the reef began.
Besides building the reef, Edison committed to restoring 150 acres of wetlands at the San Dieguito Lagoon near the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the newspaper reported. The company hired Coastal Environments, a marine engineering firm in La Jolla, to oversee both projects.
The announcement that the reef has been completed was scheduled to be made by San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Chief Executive Ross Ridenoure, who is Edison's chief nuclear officer, Edison Senior Vice President for Environmental Projects Cecil House, and California Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas at the San Clemente Pier at 10 a.m.
Although the La Jolla Light does not have any obligation to monitor this board, the La Jolla Light reserves the right at all times to check this board and to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to the La Jolla Light in our sole discretion and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. The La Jolla Light also reserves the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions. All threats to systems or site infrastructure shall be assumed genuine in nature and will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Submission of any comments will be considered permission to use online or in print.
