CBG Comments on the Proposed Diablo Canyon Wastewater Discharge Permit

The Committee to Bridge the Gap writes to urge the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (hereafter “Water Board”) to reject the NPDES Permit and Section 401 Certification now before it. Approving either action would allow PG&E to continue, and potentially intensify and expand, its pollution of Central Coast waters via Diablo Canyon water discharge. Approving either action would also advance the extension of an aging nuclear power plant with severe embrittlement and profound seismic vulnerabilities.

PG&E’s long record of violating water quality standards, withholding critical environmental data, and failing to ensure compliant discharges makes a Section 401 certification untenable. Similarly, the NPDES Permit contains no meaningful numerical limits on radioactive releases and relies on outdated scientific assumptions. Issuing a NPDES Permit under these circumstances would enable substantial degradation of the marine environment.

Together, these actions would expose local California’s Central Coast communities, such as San Luis Obispo, Shell Beach, Pismo Beach, and Oceano, and others, to unacceptable environmental and public-health risks. Given the factors discussed in this letter, approving these actions would pose serious and lasting risks. We therefore urge the Water Board to deny both the certification and the permit.

Read our full comments on PG&E’s wastewater discharge permit for Diablo Canyon by clicking here.