When Michelle Murphy and Bob Perkins first filed a complaint about the NRG power plant in El Segundo, they had no idea compliance was going to come so easily.
The state Energy Commission approved a settlement between the NRG power plant and the Manhattan Beach residents Wednesday, after listening to Murphy’s complaint during a hearing.
The couple, who are both retired lawyers, can see the barbed wire fence that encloses the plant from their home and they were among the first to notice when construction to improve the aesthetics of the plant and provide more greenery in the area actually made matters worse.
The fence along the southern border of the plant remained, a proposed concrete retaining wall was in the making, and the plant installed a large concrete drainage system that Murphy and Perkins refer to as the “water slide.”
Murphy and Perkins filed a complaint against NRG to the Energy Commission.
“In the beginning our next door neighbor, who’s 89, said, ‘That’s not right,’” Murphy said. “We said, ‘You can’t fight city hall.’ Then water slide got put in.”
The settlement ensures that the “water slide” will be removed (which Murphy said was the biggest issue), that low-lying vegetation will be landscaped outside of the fence, the fence will be moved back toward the plant and that there will be no retaining wall.
George Piantka, director of environmental business for NRG, said that the company is currently scheduling construction for the changes. He said that the removal of the concrete drainage spillway will be one of the first projects they get to when construction continues.
Piantka said that he was content with the settlement.
“This agreement outlines the resolution to each of the issues raised in the original complaint and will ensure that the landscaped berm to be completed along 45th Street will meet the conditions in our license,” he said.
“We were very pleased and somewhat surprised,” Murphy said. “We thought there might be some compromise.”
“It’s what we wanted and more than we expected,” she said. ER
