If you take a boat ride to Catalina Island, you’ll notice it’s surrounded by the ocean. With hotels, shops and restaurants heavily relying on guests, the island needs drinking water. Southern California Edison provides power, water and gas to the island. They have a desalination system that turns ocean water into drinking water. They do this by using a reverse osmosis filter that has holes in it. The water goes into the filter, but the salt doesn’t. … Years ago, the island experienced a drought, which hurt the local economy. Only bottled water was served at restaurants and hotels had to pay extra to take laundry to the mainland to clean.