Marine Mitigation
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Marine Mitigation Program is a multi-faceted environmental enhancement program intended to mitigate unavoidable impacts to the marine environment resulting from operation of the SONGS Units 2&3 cooling water systems.
The program includes:
- restoring 116 acres of degraded tidal wetlands at San Dieguito Lagoon and maintaining the inlet opening to the ocean to mitigate impacts to marine fish populations caused by estimated mortality to fish eggs and larvae;
- constructing a 174.4-acre artificial kelp reef to mitigate impacts to the San Onofre Kelp Bed;
- improving the in-plant fish protection systems to increase survival of adult fish which enter the cooling water systems;
- co-funding a marine fish hatchery program intended as supplementary mitigation for kelp habitat impacts; and
- funding for Coastal Commission staff oversight and a 40-year independent ecological performance study of these mitigation projects.
SCE is managing the overall mitigation program. SCE is the plant operator and majority owner of SONGS. SONGS is jointly owned by SCE, San Diego Gas and Electric, and the cities of Anaheim and Riverside, which are funding the mitigation work.
Keeping You Informed and Involved In the SONGS Marine Mitigation Program
SONGS wants to keep you informed about this program, which is significantly enhancing the region's marine resources. Through meetings, discussions, newsletters, this Web site and the public hearing process, we have endeavored to inform and involve all interested persons in the development and implementation of the mitigation/enhancement plans. Now that the wetland restoration and the artificial reef have been constructed, we will continue to strive to keep you informed of the ecological progress at these sites.
Overview
Overview: Since 1991 and through September 2011, SONGS' owners have spent more than $140 million to accomplish the following actions to comply with the CCC SONGS Units 2&3 Coastal Development Permit:
- The White Seabass hatchery has been constructed and is producing juvenile white seabass, with funding from SCE of $4.8 million.
- Computer systems have been purchased and the MRC database is available to the public through the Commission's San Francisco office.
- The owners have provided over $10 million in funding through 2011 for CCC staff monitoring, oversight, and scientific support.
- A total of 80 acres of land in the San Dieguito River Valley was purchased at a cost of over $8 million as part of the wetland restoration project.
- At San Dieguito Lagoon, the construction of 116 acres of tidal wetland has been completed with the final step being the opening of the river inlet to the project design specifications – total lagoon and dredging costs: approximately $30 million.
- The kelp mitigation project has seen the 22.4-acre Phase 1 experimental kelp reef offshore of San Clemente constructed in September 1999 at a cost of approximately $5 million, and the five-year CCC-directed ecological performance study completed in 2004, showing promising results and providing specific kelp reef design guidelines for the final Wheeler North Reef.
- The kelp mitigation project’s final 174.4-acre Wheeler North Reef was completed in September 2008 at a cost of $12 million.
- The first two years (2009 and 2010) of ecological performance monitoring of the Wheeler North Reef, as directed by CCC staff scientists, have shown that the reef mitigation project is already achieving 10 out of the permit’s 14 long-term performance standards.
- The testing of the variety of enhancements to the in-plant fish return system and implemented procedural improvements was completed and given approval by the CCC.
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