Ormond Beach is 1,500 acres of beach, dunes, wetlands, agricultural lands, and a long list of industrial development—past and present—including a green waste processing plant, an abalone aquaculture facility, an oil tank farm, an electric generating plant, the Halaco EPA superfund site, a cardboard manufacturing company, and a wastewater treatment plant. A multitude of organizations have been fighting to protect and restore this incredible area, and there is much more work to be done. There are two new developments within the area that we urge our community to get involved in: Phase I of the Ormond Beach Restoration and Public Access Plan and opposing the State Land Commission’s Ormond Beach Generating Station lease amendment.
First proposed in 2019, the Ormond Beach Restoration and Public Access Plan (OBRAP) will restore and provide increased public access to 620 acres within the Ormond Beach area. The three project partners—the City of Oxnard, the California State Coastal Conservancy, and The Nature Conservancy—hope to strike a balance between the protection of sensitive plant and animal species while providing a space for public recreation and enjoyment of the area. In February of 2024, the State Coastal Conservancy awarded The Nature Conservancy $35,000,000 in grant funding for Phase I of OBRAP, which has helped move the project forward.
On the morning of October 8, 2024, Surfrider Ventura County’s Ally Alejo and Joan Tharp attended an OBRAP Small Group Discussion Meeting. Joined by other community stakeholders, the project manager from Environmental Science Associates, Robert Sweet, walked us through the preliminary details of Phase I. Peter Dixon with The Nature Conservancy, Sally Gee with the California State Coastal Conservancy, and Annie Jensen with the City of Oxnard were also present. Attendees were asked to give feedback, provide concerns, and ask questions.
While most feedback on the design plans were positive, concerns surrounding illegal dumping, vandalism, and the unhoused population residing in the area arose throughout the meeting. Most participants agreed that these areas of concerns need to be addressed in order for visitors to feel safe and for success of the overall project. Though the project partners are still working on ways to remediate these issues (including asking for community input to find solutions), they hope that organizations working at Ormond will continue to educate the surrounding communities on the importance of environmental stewardship within the area.
OBRAP project partners are hosting two public community workshops in November, with more outreach opportunities set for early 2025. We urge Surfrider VC community members, especially those residing nearby in Oxnard and Port Hueneme, to get involved:
Community Workshops — Wednesday, November 14, 2024:
The Central Coast Alliance United for A Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) recently received notice from the State Lands Commission (SLC) that they are considering a lease amendment for the pipe component of the Ormond Beach Generating Station (OBGS). If accepted, this would extend the lease term from April 23, 2025 to December 31, 2026—aligning with the plant's current decommissioning date. Rejection would ensure that OBGS is closed for good, potentially even sooner than the anticipated 2026 date.
The once-through cooling plant’s decommissioning has already been pushed back twice by the State Water Resources Control Board—once in 2020 and then again in 2023. Though these facilities harm marine and human life alike, officials wanted to keep plants like the OBGS on reserve to meet California’s energy grid demands during power emergencies like heatwaves. However, a 2023 study by Regenerate California on the record-breaking heatwave of 2022 found that plants like OBGS failed to meet energy needs while skyrocketing pollution—toxic emissions in Oxnard being 13 times higher than normal conditions.
CAUSE is leading the fight against this lease amendment and working to ensure that the OBGS is successfully phased out, and Surfrider VC is in full support.
"South Oxnard cannot continue to be a sacrifice zone! We are looking to the State Lands Commission to uphold the Public Trust and commit to clean air and coastal access for environmental justice communities by rejecting the amendment of Lease 4196 so that the Ormond Beach Generating Station can be permanently decommissioned," says Aurora Rugerio, CAUSE's Environmental Justice Policy Advocate - Oxnard.
Show your support by submitting public comment, either online by December 14th or in-person (Sacramento) at the State Land Commission's meeting on December 17th. More information on the meeting can be found here. Details on when the State Land Commission will be making a decision have yet to be confirmed, but CAUSE has told us that it will most likely be in 2025. We will share details as we find out more.
Learn more about our Ormond Beach Program or sign-up for our Ormond Cleanups here.