Edison Sued Over Harm to Fish Near San Onofre

Charging that the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is violating federal law by killing tons of fish and kelp, an environmental group filed suit Thursday against Southern California Edison Co. demanding a stop to the killing.

The suit was filed about a year after a 15-year, $46-million study found that the nuclear plant south of San Clemente is, indeed, killing tons of fish and kelp. But since then, neither Edison nor state regulatory agencies have taken action on the findings, according to the suit, filed by Earth Island Institute Inc., a San Francisco-based environmental group.

The suit, filed in federal court in San Diego, demands that Edison either fix the plant’s cooling system, which the study said is responsible for most of the fish and kelp kills, or shut the plant down.

The study was issued by a panel created in 1974 by the Coastal Commission as a condition of its granting Edison a construction permit to expand from one reactor to three.

The suit also says Edison should be ordered to establish an environmental trust fund and restore fish and kelp levels. It also asks for unspecified monetary damages.

“It’s pie-in-the-sky until we win, which we intend to do,” said one of Earth Island’s San Diego lawyers, Charles S. Crandall. “But we want the plant to comply and to make restoration for the damage it has done--and it has done damage, clearly.”

An Edison spokesman, David Barron, said the utility’s lawyers had not seen the suit. But he said the utility is in compliance with all federal environmental laws.

“The marine life offshore is thriving, despite some limited effects from operation of the plant, as one would expect,” Barron said.

The San Onofre plant is located along the Pacific Ocean a few miles south of San Clemente, within the Marine Corps’ base at Camp Pendleton.

Rosemead-based Edison operates three nuclear-powered units at the plant. The first opened in 1968; the second and third opened in 1984.

According to the suit, fish are killed when massive amounts of water are taken into the plant to cool the reactors. Kelp, according to the suit, dies from particles that come back out with the water and either land on the fronds or block sunlight.