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Leading Construction Firm for Wastewater Treatment Plant
Loses Big Contract with City of New Orleans
by Jack McCurdy
Synopsis: MWH, the leading candidate to build a new Morro Bay-Cayucos wastewater treatment plant, has had its $48 million hurricane-recovery contract with the city of New Orleans cancelled after the city Office of Inspector General found that MWH had engaged in a wide range of questionable practices and called for termination of the contract. Read More
Morro Bay Power Plant Sale Still In the Works
by Jack McCurdy
The sale of the Morro Bay Power Plant from Dynegy to NRG Energy is on track and is expected to be finalized by late November.
Dynegy had a 40-day period in which to obtain better offers than the $4.7 billion bid from the Blackstone Group to acquire Dynegy, including its power plants in the East, Midwest and the West plus debt. That 40-day period expired on September 23.
Meanwhile, Dynegy's plan to remove the large, old oil tanks on the Morro Bay plant property has been postponed until next year.
A Dynegy spokesperson said the corporation's stockholders are scheduled to meet on Nov. 17 to vote on the deal. If it is approved, the escrow transferring ownership to the Blackstone Group will probably closed by the end of November, the spokesman said.
NRG is buying Dynegy's three California plants in Morro Bay, Moss Landing, Oakland and the Casco Bay plant in Maine through the Blackstone Group and hopes to close its escrow on or about the same time Dynegy closes its, an NRG spokesperson said.
But first, the transactions must be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERA), and the NRG spokesperson said the company has requested FERA to complete that action by end of October.
Dynegy had intended to begin removing the six 32-feet tall oil storage tanks on the power plant property in August. But delays were blamed on obtaining approval from the California Energy Commission, which reportedly lacked personnel to oversee the project. Now, the Dynegy spokesperson said, the removal will be delayed until next year to avoid doing the work in the rainy season. The spokesman said Dynegy will still be responsible for the removal, even if the the plant changes hands.
An Energy Commission spokesperson said the Commission doesn't object to the delay until next year because it doesn't know when it can get to the review of the project.
Is Big Business Using San Luis Obispo County Communities
As Piggybanks?
by Kari Olsen
Reports of the recent scandal in the City of Bell describe the alleged misappropriation of about $5.5 million dollars. Bell city officials are accused of paying themselves exorbitant salaries at the expense of taxpayers. $5.5 million dollars is a great deal of money, but is almost insignificant when compared to the tax dollars allegedly being misappropriated by local governments through the inappropriate awarding of contracts to vendors with alleged ties to government officials. Read More
Cambria Community Services
District Race Splits Along Desalination Lines
By Catherine Ryan Hyde
Recently I've taken to calling Cambria "the new Los Osos," a reflection of the division in both communities. In Los Osos, the dreaded buzzword is "sewer." In Cambria, it's "desal." As with the Los Osos sewer, the end costs of desal may not be truly known going in, and the ability of lower-income Cambrians to pay for future services is not assured. Here's the difference, as this reporter sees it: Los Osos needs a sewer, so the argument is more about what sewer and where, as there are not many alternatives to sewers. But those who say "Cambria needs desal" really mean "Cambria needs water." And there are alternatives. Read More |
The Strange Saga of Morro Bay’s Stream Interference Study
by Kari Olsen
Despite the failure of the 2009 Chorro Valley stream interference test, which was invalidated because the stream was dry at the time of testing, the City of Morro Bay has continued to use the consulting firm that performed the 2009 work. A list of invoices obtained from the Morro Bay City Attorney appears to indicate that although the 2009 test was a failure, the consulting firm was paid, and was paid again, in 2010, to redo the failed test. It appears that thus far, Morro Bay taxpayers have paid $60,054.81 for a stream interference test project that was originally supposed to cost $25,000 and that was to have included the writing of a report on the test findings. No report has been produced to date. Read More |
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