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.”
