When Michelle Murphy and Bob Perkins peer out of the window of their Manhattan Beach Strand home, they see a barbed wire fence that borders the NRG power plant in El Segundo.
Pedestrians walking up or down 45th Street, they said, must walk on the road that funnels cars into the El Porto parking lot.
“It’s unnecessarily dangerous besides being intrusive and ugly to passersby and people who live here,” Perkins said. “This is a busy place on summer days – there’s surf camp, (and) on weekend days, the parking lot is frequently jammed.”
When NRG submitted plans years ago for the El Segundo Repowering Project, residents voiced concerns about the visual impacts of the project. The project would provide 550 megawatts of new generating capacity, enough to supply over 400,000 homes, according to NRG.
At the time, the California Energy Commission found that the neighborhood’s priority was aesthetics, during and after construction. “Due to the long-term nature of visual exposure that will be experienced from residences, and the sensitivity with which people regard their places of residence, residential viewers are considered to have high viewer concern,” according to an Energy Commission report.
NRG proposed landscaping the plant’s southern border, which faces 45th Street residents in Manhattan Beach, with greenery.
But Murphy and Perkins claim that’s not what they got.
When the retired lawyers noticed developments surrounding the power plant that they didn’t think were in line with NRG’s license, they were upset.
Last month, the couple filed a complaint against NRG to the Energy Commission, detailing a list of construction elements that they claim are not compliant and “defiling our coast.”
Construction along the southern border of the site, mostly related to visual screening and aesthetic enhancements of the project, is on pause until the complaint is resolved, according to NRG’s Director of Environmental Business George Piantka.
He added that a perimeter fence is required, but its permanent location will be confirmed pending the outcome of the complaint.
In addition to the safety and visual complaints about the fence, Murphy and Perkins argue that a newly installed concrete drainage system on the southern border “looks like a giant water slide,” and that a would-be concrete retaining wall is ugly and unnecessary.
“That concrete is not going to accommodate any greenery,” Perkins said.
After receiving the complaint, Energy Commission staff visited the site twice in July to investigate the claims. In a report, commission staff members conclude that Murphy and Perkins’ issues with the chain link fence, concrete drainage system and concrete retaining wall are valid. “Staff does not believe that landscaping will obscure or soften the view of this massive concrete structure, particularly when viewed from The Strand and beach, and from porches of residences on 45th Street,” the staff concluded.
NRG plans to resume the project following the complaint’s resolution. “Our plan, following resolution of the complaint, is to complete the berm and landscaping in the southern portion of the property to provide the visual enhancements documented in the Energy Commission license for the El Segundo Energy Center,” Piantka said, in an email.
The Energy Commission will decide whether to dismiss the complaint, hold a public hearing, or issue a written decision with its findings.
