{"id":405035,"date":"2026-01-13T18:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/405035\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:43:08","slug":"marine-mammal-center-searches-for-new-home-after-being-ousted-by-vistra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/405035\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Mammal Center searches for new home after being ousted by Vistra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marinemammalcenter.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marine Mammal Center<\/a> has been located on the Morro Bay power plant for 25 years. But, just over a year ago, the center received notice from the property owner, Vistra, that it needed to relocate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly why,&#8221; said Aliah Meza, Morro Bay facility senior manager. &#8220;We\u2019re really thankful to Vistra and all the other owners of the property who allowed us to operate for so long free of charge, and so we don\u2019t exactly know why.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>KSBY reached out to Vistra, but has not yet received a response.<\/p>\n<p>The Marine Mammal Center started searching for a new place right away, set on staying on the Central Coast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMorro Bay and the vicinity is our sweet spot,&#8221; said Jeff Boehm, chief of external relations. &#8220;That\u2019s where most of our patients come in, that\u2019s where most of our volunteer and staff are based and that is also the best climate for the animals that we care for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One location they are actively working towards moving into is the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cayucossanitarydistrict.gov\/the-water-resource-recovery-facility-wrrf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cayucos Water Reclamation facility<\/a> off of Toro Creek Road.<\/p>\n<p>The Cayucos Sanitary District\u2019s general manager, David Athey, explained how the move could work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have enough space that they would build, actually, a new facility just to the east of our plant,\u201d Athey said. <\/p>\n<p>Some mockups were presented to the board, showing what that new facility would look like. The center would be equipped with an exam room, offices, and a conference room.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768329788_82_.jpeg\" alt=\"mock.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cayucos Sanitary District<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768329788_537_.jpeg\" alt=\"up.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cayucos Sanitary District<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve met with our board and discussed possible development options, and so really the next step is developing that lease,&#8221; Athey said. <\/p>\n<p>The general manager said once the development of the lease is done, they\u2019ll have to go back to the board to get those plans approved. If successful, they\u2019ll then apply for building permits with the county.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not about to put all our eggs in one basket, and yet, we\u2019re really hopeful that things will move forward in a very positive way with Cayucos Sanitary District. We\u2019re mindful that there are a lot of steps along the way,&#8221; Boehm said. <\/p>\n<p>Boehm added that nothing is certain yet, so any leads on potential properties are welcome. <\/p>\n<p>The Marine Mammal Center has until the end of this year to move out of their current location. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Marine Mammal Center has been located on the Morro Bay power plant for 25 years. But, just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[195261,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-405035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-marine-mammal-center-searches-for-new-home-after-being-ousted-by-vistra","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}