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Marine mammal rescue breaks ground on $14 million expansion, water reclamation project

March 4, 2023

Dr. Alissa Deming was a bit worried, she said, as the Pacific Marine Mammal Center prepared for the start of construction on a $14 million expansion and water reclamation project that will make the rescue center more environmentally friendly and further transform it into a research-driven tool to study ocean health and environmental impacts on marine life.

She was worried construction noise would reverberate through the water where about 20 sea lions were recovering in treatment pools – loud noise can be extremely stressful.

Workers relocate a water tank at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. It will eventually be replaced by a water efficient reclamation system that will be installed in phases over the next 18 months. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Pacific Marine Mammal Center has started working on its $14 million water reclamation system will make a huge dent in saving water in Laguna Beach and cut the center’s use by 90%. A worker walks in the area that will house the new reclamation facility on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The water system currently used by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, pictured, in Laguna Beach on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, will be replaced by a $14 million water reclamation system that will cut the center’s use by 90 percent. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Animals at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center are being taken into consideration while a $14 million water reclamation system is being installed. They are doing the work in phases and not putting the mammals near the construction noise. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Workers relocate a water tank, bottom right, at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. It will eventually be replaced by a water efficient reclamation system that will be installed in phases over the next 18 months. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A rendering of an expansion and water filtration system at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Canyon. The $14 million project is underway and will nearly double the center’s main facility that houses the hospital, treatment pools and educational facilities. A separate water reclamation facility will help conserve 90% of the center’s water usage. (Photo courtesy of PMMC)

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But Deming credits the contractor with taking extra measures to shield the animals. “A gold star to those guys, they modified their technology and used no jackhammers to ensure the patients weren’t impacted.”

And some of the center’s recovering patients and its life-support systems have been moved to allow an access way behind PMMC’s iconic red barn, further allaying Deming’s concerns about the impact of the important construction project.

“Sea lions have individual personalities like people,” said Deming, PMMC’s lead veterinarian and vice president of conservation medicine and science. “Some are skittish and others are brave. I was a little nervous at first, but there was no need to fret, these animals didn’t even realize anything was going on behind the barn.”

The sea lions continued to eat and play as normal in their temporary spot, which was great for visitors this week because the pools are located where the public can watch at a distance.

The rescue center hosted a groundbreaking with local leaders this week to celebrate the work beginning on the facility that’s been in Laguna Canyon ever since opening in 1971.

The expansion will double the rescue’s main facility, expanding space for its hospital and educational facilities. It also adds a dedicated necropsy area and a laboratory, which will expand its research capabilities, and adds three more pools. The expansion will help PMMC’s growing focus on research, not just its rescue work, said CEO Glenn Gray. The center works in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and universities and research centers nationwide to share data and responses to challenging ocean conditions.

A new filtration system – to be housed in a separate mini red barn – will allow PMMC to recycle 90% of the water used on the property. PMMC has been going through about 15,000 gallons of water a day, which should reduce to about 1,500 gallons daily, saving about 5 million gallons a year.

Much of the consumption has been by the seven pools now in operation at the center, which are typically emptied and refilled between four to six times a day.

“Sea lions have terrible manners and always poop into the pool,” Deming said. “That’s why this water treatment plant is almost like a sewage treatment plant because we have so much bio-load.”

The expansion and water project have been in the works since 2018 and were given a final OK by city officials in 2022.

The construction comes at a good time with fewer patients at the center and what looks to be a quieter season for rescues. NOAA scientists who visited Channel Island rookeries in September reported the newborn pups appeared in good health.

In all, 26 animals have been treated since the summer’s pup season. The first sea lion pup, found in Seal Beach, came in on Sept. 28. Of those rescued this season, five have been released, including a Northern fur seal found by two Newport Beach Public Works employees.

Rescue teams have also retrieved the carcasses of 10 dead sea lions, likely brought in by recent high winds and currents during the storms. Four of the dead came in just last weekend, Deming said.

This month, Deming expects to see some elephant seal strandings – most started weaning from their moms about two weeks ago, she said. “They typically start showing up four weeks after weaning if they haven’t figured it out.”

The likely healthier animals coupled with a La Nino year – which means the water is colder and there is more prey out there for sea lions – has PMMC officials hopeful that fewer animals need rescuing and the project can remain on schedule.

Work now includes construction behind the hospital and on a 1,350-square-foot, shared-use building that will be used by PMMC and the city. The second floor will become a cattery for the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter, which is located next door, and PMMC will use the ground floor to store its boat and for some office space.

Gray said completion of that phase is expected in six to seven months. At that point, during the center’s slower period before pups born this coming summer can run into trouble, PMMC hopes to have struck a deal with the city whereby a makeshift MASH-like tent center can be set up as a temporary space on a city lot. The center would operate in that location while the hospital and its classrooms are doubled in size and the water filtration system and the accompanying building are completed.

“We hope to be back by November 2024,” Gray said, adding that the overall expansion will help provide improved animal care and an opportunity to expand education programs – last year 9,400 students took part in afternoon and summer programs, with 26,000 participating online.

The water recycling system will be incorporated into the center’s educational curriculum related to water conservation, he added.

The current La Nina climate conditions are expected to wain in the near future, with some experts predicting warmer El Nino conditions on the horizon. Between 2013 and 2016, hundreds of sea lions stranded and died along the California coastline. NOAA dubbed those years an unexpected mortality event.

“That’s when we got into trouble and reached capacity,” Deming said. “It’s serendipitous we’re doing our construction during a La Nina. When it shifts to El Nino, we’ll have our new facility and be better prepared. That event made us realize, we have to have more space.”

Orange County Register

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Marine mammal rescue breaks ground on $14 million expansion, water reclamation project

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