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Plans to industrialize Port San Luis in rural Avila Beach moving forward

July 23, 2024

Port San Luis

By KAREN VELIE

Plans to transform Port San Luis in rural Avila Beach into an industrial port to support proposed offshore wind farms in Morro Bay are moving forward with the assistance of the Port San Luis Harbor District, though most of the discussions have been held in closed session out of public view.

For years, harbor district staff has discussed plans to industrialize the port, though most negotiations have been in closed session with little information available to the public. On Tuesday evening, the harbor district board will meet in closed session to discuss leasing 10 acres of the tidelands to a company associated with off shore wind energy.

Even though several members of the public have argued the district is violating requirements to provide either the address, assessors parcel number or property description in order to discuss lease agreements in closed session, the district has failed to provide a property description other than it is in the tidelands.

The tidelands refers to the approximately 8,400 areas of the coastline that is under the control of the harbor district.

The harbor district is considering an up to 75-year contract for Clean Energy Terminals to lease 10 acres of the tidelands. The company plans to pay $25,000 for the first six months as it evaluates the area for support for off-shore wind energy planned off Morro Bay.

The proposed project evaluation agreement includes the following provisions:

• The parties will collaborate in good faith to evaluate the feasibility of a potential operations and maintenance port project anticipated to require up to 10 acres of tidelands.
• The parties will negotiate in good faith on a lease option agreement for consideration if a project is determined to be mutually feasible.
• Any decision on whether to proceed with a project and whether to enter into a lease option agreement with Clean Energy Terminals would be subject to separate approval by the Harbor District’s Board.
• As consideration for the project evaluation agreement, Clean Energy Terminals proposes an initial payment of $25,000 for the first six months, and then $4,100 for each additional month. Clean Energy Terminals  also proposes a one-time administrative support payment of $9,000 to assist with district staffing of the evaluation project.

In Dec. 2022, an auction for three offshore wind energy sites located off the coast near Morro Bay netted over $400 million. The wind turbines will float in the ocean more than 20 miles off the coast, with the electricity sent ashore via cables along the ocean floor.

The goal is to have the windmills in the water by 2030.

Industrialization of the proposed Central Coast ports will have significant impacts on the local economy and its ocean-dependent ecosystems. The support systems on land will include massive piers, and could require new breakwaters and dredging.

Site rendering of example of integration at Port San Luis. Breakwater may or may not be required.

The offshore windmills themselves are 1,000 feet tall, taller than the Golden Gate Bridge, and their platforms are the size of a baseball field.

While the report discusses providing funding to help mitigate the environment and economic issues these ports could create, locals involved in the tourism industry have grave concerns regarding transforming Morro Bay or Port San Luis into industrial ports.

 


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Just no. Not in Avila! Not in Morro Bay!

Save our coast, just stop. Put solar panels on every roof if we have to, but leave our coast alone. Please!


57

Not sure why everyone is upset. It’s a 6 month lease to do due diligence. It may not be suitable. Next, the Coastal Commission has yet to weigh in. Diablo Canyon is nearby so perhaps some of the infrastructure that serves that can also serve this. This is from the Port Districts website and sounds much like they are going to comply with an intended use. “The tidelands granted (Chapter 647 – 1955; Chapter 302 – amended 1957) to the Harbor District by the State of California, were mandated “to be used for harbor, aviation, wharves, docks, piers, slips, quays, and other structures.” The land was also “to be used for establishment of public buildings, parks, playgrounds, public recreation, public fishing, and public access and public navigation.”


The State tidelands grant mandates specific functions that the District must guarantee for public use. The grant mandates that the District provide “facilities and appliances necessary or convenient for the promotion and accommodation of commerce and commercial as well as recreational navigation by air and by water.” It also mandates that “the State of California shall have at all times the right to use, without charge, all wharves, docks, piers, slips, quays or any other improvements and facilities constructed on said lands.”


-41

This is just the next pie in the sky plan to save the county and cites from years and decades of poor financial management, back filling budgets in the red from decades of unsustainable compensations and pensions. They need this because they dont want to reduce compensations and personnel and since the previous plan, marijuana fell way short of providing the needed money, no surprise, but of course this plan will succeed………


49

Messkit: discuss the project instead of…..Hey, you hardcore….What do you say…The very same people …the very same people..the very same people..


-25

It will never happen. The major staging areas for these wind farms will be at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and further up the coast at the large harbor in Humboldt. Obviously the companies who are building these structures are looking at MB and Avila to save money, but there would simply be too much opposition and recurring litigation against such a move. It’s just too bad there wasn’t this much hand wringing 50+ years ago when big oil dumped 100,000 barrels of oil in Santa Barbara, impacting the coast from the Mexican border to Pismo Beach and killing thousands of birds and sea mammals.


-36

Up to 25 tons of oil naturally seep from the Channel floor…EVERY DAY. That’s roughly 6000 gallons a day, or over 2 MILLION gallons each year.


Not surprisingly, pumping the oil has lessened the amount of daily seepage.


Want to know how they found oil in Santa Barbara? They went to the beach and stepped in it.


48

Yes, oil seepage occurs naturally in the Pacific Ocean, especially off the coast of Santa Barbara, but not 100,000 gallons all at one time. You must not have been alive in 1969 or you would have remembered the news footage of volunteers trying to clean gulls and pelicans or otters and seals who were totally caked in oil.


It was the worst ecological disaster in the history of California. All because big oil cut corners and didn’t have their equipment adequately monitored. A similar disaster happened in Avila Beach. I guess you’ve all forgotten that the town once sat on a toxic pool of oil because Unocal did not take care of business and had to rebuild the entire town. I’m confident that wind farms will cause no such destruction.


-15

Correction: 100,000 barrels of oil or 4.2 million gallons.


-7

That’s when old Dick Nixon made the EPA, after he saw the Santa Barbara spill.


1

Destroying the Harbor and ruining the Ocean floor are decisions being made in closed session. No public input ? Absolutely outrageous.


75

OK, let’s have a vote, you know going forward assures a paycheck to the many county employees. Now let’s keep it fair for our constituents and vote. Well, well, it’s a majority in favor. What a great system and how lucky we are to be allowed to do the right thing, have an unbiased vote.


12

Why Port San Luis rather than Morro Bay? (which already has much more developed industrial infrastructure and site access thanks to the old power plant).


Just doesn’t make any sense other than wishful thinking that the community would support such a large business in tiny Port San Luis/Avila Beach. Could you imagine huge tower cranes/barges/ships co-existing with the small fleet and hordes of tourists (which are the life blood of the community)?


The rendering shows access along the existing beach/oceanfront. There’s zero point zero chance the Coastal Commision would approve a road built in that location and such a proposal is dead on arrival.


The wind farm people need to look elsewhere.


49

Morro Bay is a shallow, small boat harbor with a dangerous entrance that requires continuous dredging to allow shallow draft vessels access.

Port San Luis would need an additional breakwater to allow deeper draft vessels costing a hundred million dollars.

I don’t know if the Feds are willing to kick back 25% of the lease money they collected for improvements.


5

How much is Clean Energy Terminals paying the members of the Harbor District Board to approve this?


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