AES Power Plant Is No Work of Art

* I was disgusted by your portrayal of the AES power plant in Huntington Beach as a piece of public art (“A Closer Look,” Feb. 17). When was The Times hired to be a PR firm for the AES Corp.? The timing of your full-page photo essay was very interesting since the California Energy Commission held a site tour and public hearing regarding the retooling of this plant here in Huntington Beach on Wednesday.

This is a dinosaur of a power plant that pumps nitrous oxide into our air, adding to the air pollution problems of the Southern California region. It also pollutes our ocean waters. If AES gets its permit to bring the 40-year-old technology of Units 3 and 4 online, the plant will pump more than 500 million gallons of hot water into the ocean a day when operating at peak loads. The hot water from the AES plant has been implicated in allowing the bacteria-laden sewage dumped four miles off our shores to find its way back to our beaches. Further studies are planned this spring to verify this link.

Forgive me for not being able to find “beauty in the vastness of its huge furnace and labyrinth of pipes.” I am also not able to appreciate that it “glows at night like a docking station . . . or like a piece of outdoor art all metal and lights.” Perhaps you should have talked to the people who live near the plant and have to put up with the noise and pollution of the plant before you waxed poetic about it.

As long as we have to have this plant in our city, I’d like to see it replaced with state-of-the-art technology, including a low-profile building and proper environmental safeguards to reduce the pollution it causes.

CONNIE BOARDMAN

Huntington Beach City Council