Top Monterey County officials met in early 2011 to discuss ways
to dump the Marina Coast Water District from the regional
desalination project, raising questions about the county’s
efforts to make the three-pronged project partnership work and
potentially affecting civil litigation aimed at unraveling the
failed proposal.
“Former Monterey County water board member Steve Collins has
filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the county,
California American Water and top officials in connection with
his dual role on the failed regional desalination project.”
“Timothy Quinn is with the Association of California Water
Agencies, or ACWA. He says planned Central Valley water recycling
projects and a water desalination project in San Diego are
welcome, but he says conservation is equally important.”
“Faced with increasing salt content in the region’s water supply,
Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District administrators are
looking at desalination as a possible solution.”
“City officials are exploring whether Antioch can turn the salty
Delta water off its shoreline into a true liquid asset by
building a desalination plant.”
“The crews are building what boosters say represents California’s
best hope for a drought-proof water supply: the largest ocean
desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. The $1 billion
project will provide 50 million gallons of drinking water a day
for San Diego County when it opens in 2016.”
“Thanks to improved technology, turning ocean water into
freshwater is becoming more economically feasible. And a
looming global water crisis may make it crucial to the planet’s
future.
‘Whenever a drought exacerbates freshwater supplies in
California, people tend to look toward the ocean for an
answer,” said Jennifer Bowles, executive director of the
California-based Water Education Foundation.’”
“This seaside city thought it had the perfect solution the last
time California withered in a severe drought more than two
decades ago: Tap the ocean to turn salty seawater to fresh
water.”
“The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking proposals from
universities, water utilities, private industry and others to
address a broad range of desalting and water purification needs.
Reclamation is interested in research that will have national
significance and where the benefits of the technology will be
widespread.”
“Israel has gone through one of the driest winters in its
history, but despite the lean rainy season, the government has
suspended a longstanding campaign to conserve water. …
“The reason: Israel has in recent years achieved a quiet water
revolution through desalination.”
“Quietly whirring away in a dusty field in the Central Valley
is a shiny solar energy machine that may someday solve many of
California’s water problems.
“It’s called the WaterFX solar thermal desalination plant, and
it has been turning salty, contaminated irrigation runoff into
ultra-pure liquid for nearly a year for the Panoche Water and
Drainage District.”
Aquafornia’s Water Word of the Week from sister site Aquapedia is Desalination.
Aquapedia, the Water Education Foundation’s interactive online
water encyclopedia, contains vetted information from an objective
source.
According to an excerpt from the Aquapedia entry, “Recurrent
droughts and uncertainties about future water supplies have led
several California communities to look to saltwater for
supplemental supplies through a process known as desalination.
“A judge ruled the failed regional desalination project
agreements can still be challenged, but only by the Monterey
County Water Resources Agency and not California American
Water.
“Marina Coast Water District, a former regional project partner
with Cal Am and the county, has alleged its partners should pay
its project costs, estimated at $15 million to $18 million,
because they backed out of valid project agreements.”
From the Los Angeles Times, in the Capitol Journal column by
George Skelton:
“Gov. Jerry Brown enjoys a unique position that no California
governor has been in for 68 years. He is a virtual shoo-in for
reelection.
“That gives him an extremely rare opportunity to rise above
conventional political rhetoric and open a substantive dialogue
with voters about the state’s future direction.
“The giant solar receiver installed on a wheat field here in
California’s agricultural heartland slowly rotates to track the
sun and capture its energy. The 377-foot array, however, does not
generate electricity but instead creates heat used to desalinate
water.
“Besieged by drought and desperate for new sources of water,
California towns are ramping up plans to convert salty ocean
water into drinking water to quench their long-term thirst. The
plants that carry out the high-tech “desalination” process can
cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but there may be few other
choices for the parched state.”
“For more than a
decade, local water districts in South County have partnered
with cities to explore the possibility of developing a
desalination plant in Dana Point to convert ocean water to
drinkable water for the area.
“After years of testing, some partners are ready to move
forward with permitting for the eventual construction of a
plant, but funding is a huge obstacle and not all of the
partners are sure they can afford it.”
From the Los Angeles Times, in a commentary by David
Helvarg:
“Californians used to call it earthquake weather, the
unseasonably warm, dry, blue-sky days that pushed deep into this
year’s rainy season. Now we just call it drought.”
