Fort Bragg Vice Mayor Marcia Rafanan told the City Council on Monday night that she went out to the city’s wave-powered desalination buoy, which makes fresh water from ocean water, to taste it. … The city’s 12-month pilot with Oneka Technologies, a company based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, was designed with pipelines carrying fresh water from the buoy to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, according to the Coastal Commission, which approved the project with conditions in December 2025. The pipeline part of the project has since been dropped. In an April memo to the Coastal Commission, which the commission provided Wednesday, Oneka said the cost of installing, surveying and removing the pipeline was “disproportionate to the benefits” for a short pilot project.