Los Angeles area water agencies were hard hit in 2022 by successive years of drought and an unprecedented meager State Water Project allocation, but none was more impacted than Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves about 70,000 users in an upscale section of the city with virtually no other supply alternatives, in-state or out. The severe per-person water-use limit prompted officials to come up with a plan to create new supply through a novel in-ocean desalination process. … The nine-month pilot “exceeded expectations,” says Mark Golay, OceanWell director of engineering projects. … The goal is to scale to an ocean-based “farm” system of multiple pods about 4.5 miles offshore of Malibu that could produce, when operating by about 2028, up to 50-60 million gallons per day.

Other desalination news:

• ABC15 (Phoenix): Arizona’s salty solution for its water future
• Las Vegas Review-Journal: Opinion: California and desalination