Ocean Protection Council Grant

The City of Oxnard applied for a grant through the Ocean Protection Council Once-Through Cooling Mitigation Program.  The State Water Resources Control Board established the statewide “Water Quality Control Policy on the Use of Coastal and Estuarine Waters for Power Plant Cooling” (Policy) in 2010 requiring power generating facilities to stop using once-through cooling (OTC) technology. The Policy requires that mitigation payments assessed against power plants for use of OTC technology support “mitigation projects directed toward increases in marine life associated with the state’s marine protected areas in the geographic region of the facility.” The Policy directed the Ocean Protection Council (OPC) to develop and implement the Once-Through Cooling Interim Mitigation Program (Program). OPC and the State Water Resources Control Board entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that allocates $5.4 million of the annual payments to mitigate the impacts of OTC on California’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network.

 

The City should find out if funds are awarded to address the Channel Islands water quality issue in April 2019. For more details on this grant, click here.