It’s hard to hear “power plant” and “thriving ecosystem” together in the same sentence, but it’s been done! The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in North County, owned by San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and Riverside recently spent $46 million to build the nation’s largest artificial reef off the coast of San Clemente to mitigate the nuclear plant’s ecologic damage. I have always been a bit suspicious as to how successful these mitigation measures really are, but this scenario does make me more optimistic.
The artificial reef is part of the Wheeler North Reef, a huge artificial reef started by ocean advocates to boost the habitat and marine life. According to UC Santa Barbara scientists that have been monitoring the kelp forest since its conception, the 174-acre reef is doing better than expected with a higher yield of marine life in the densely growing undersea “rainforest.” David Kay, the head of the environmental projects of Edison, was excited and eager to share the success of the company in its efforts to stay an environmentally friendly nuclear power plant (oxymoron?) (more…)
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