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.
Fort Bragg, long powered by timber, fishing and tourist
economies, is getting notice statewide for its push to create
monetary green out of the Blue Economy, state officials
said. … For Fort Bragg, Blue Economy leadership is also
helping to create innovative solutions to the
ever-worsening water shortage the city faces. The City of Fort
Bragg is ground zero for Oneka Technologies, a Canadian company
working all over the world with wave energy to make freshwater.
The company found Fort Bragg a willing partner to test its
revolutionary wave energy-powered desalination device on the
West Coast, a place that Oneka Technologies CEO and cofounder
Dragan Tutic wants to be. After a presentation before the
council, the city and Oneka put together a bid for a $1.5
million state grant that is now pending.
Citing Israel’s extraordinary success in meeting its
agricultural and household water needs, Marco Sermoneta told a
recent gathering of water industry professionals that his
country has much to offer other regions facing the dire problem
of water scarcity. … Sermoneta, who has been on the job
since August, was speaking at the Association of California
Water Agencies fall conference and exhibition, held Nov.
29-Dec. 1 in Indian Wells, near Palm Desert. The event
featured more than 40 programs, workshops and roundtable
conversations examining topics such as water management,
affordable drinking water and water supply. ACWA is a statewide
coalition of public water agencies.
As water in the Western U.S. becomes an increasingly rare
commodity, the driest states are grasping at solutions for an
even drier future — investing heavily in technologies to
maximize the conservation, and creation, of the region’s most
precious resource. … With more than a thousand miles of
Pacific Ocean coastline, California appears to have access to a
wellspring that other arid states lack. The technology to
transform that unlimited sea supply into potable drinking water
has existed for decades, through a process called desalination.
Yet while two new desalination plants have received approvals
in the past couple months, California’s coast isn’t exactly
teeming with such facilities.
On this edition of Your Call, we’ll discuss the California
Coastal Commission’s recent approval of a controversial
desalination plant in Monterey County. The plan was approved 9
years after it was first proposed, following 13 hours of debate
at a public hearing. Proponents of the plan view desalination
as a critical source of drinking water in a drought-starved
region. Environmental justice advocates argue the plant could
raise costs for low income residents and harm marine life and
other wildlife habitats. What is the future for desalination in
the west, during an era of climate-induced mega-droughts?
The California Coastal Commission recently approved the
construction of two more desalination plants, one near
Monterey, and one by Dana Point. This adds to the four already
providing drinking water in the state. But in 2020, this same
commission advised not to build the Monterey plant. What
changed? The state has faced its driest three years on
record, and it needs more potable water for its almost 40
million residents, especially the ones living on the coast.
… Many countries in the Middle East, and even parts of
the United States, rely almost exclusively on desalinated
water, which is ocean water with the salt and other impurities
removed. Nevertheless, there are significant costs in terms of
energy needed for the desalination process and environmental
damage. In the case of the plant near Monterey, local residents
complained about other factors too.
Arizona State University and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced
Nov. 16 that the university will lead a multi-year Arizona
Water Innovation Initiative to provide immediate, actionable
and evidence-based solutions to ensure that Arizona will
continue to thrive with a secure future water supply, according
to a news release. Ducey has committed resources and has
asked ASU to work with industrial, municipal, agricultural,
tribal and international partners to rapidly accelerate and
deploy new approaches and technology for water conversation,
augmentation, desalination, efficiency, infrastructure, and
reuse.
After more than a decade in the trying, a major desalination
plant to serve the Monterey Peninsula has cleared a significant
hurdle—in theory, at least. In a 13-hour meeting that adjourned
just after 10pm on Thursday, Nov. 17, the California Coastal
Commission approved a conditional coastal development permit
for California American Water, the private water utility that
serves the greater Monterey Peninsula, to build a desalination
project in neighboring Marina, a city whose residents are
vehemently opposed to it, and who would not be served by
it. One thing that was continually brought up during the
meeting, and that was acknowledged in the Coastal Commission’s
staff report that recommended approval (with many conditions,
some potentially insurmountable), is that the project is rife
with complexity, both from technical and environmental justice
standpoints. … One question that remained unanswered was
who would pay for the project.
The California Coastal Commission [Thursday night] approved
another desalination plant, despite citing its high costs,
risks to Monterey Bay’s environment and “the most significant
environmental justice issues” the commission has faced in
recent years. The commission’s divided, 8-to-2 vote came
after 13 hours of debate at a Salinas public hearing packed
with several hundred people, plus more crammed into overflow
space. Many of the 375 who signed up to speak opposed the
project — some in tears. Much of the debate focused on the
fairness of locating a for-profit company’s facility in the
Monterey County city of Marina — which does not need the water
and is home to designated disadvantaged neighborhoods. The
expensive supply will flow to other communities, including the
whiter, wealthy enclaves of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Pacific Grove
and Pebble Beach.
In 1995, Bill Clinton was president, Pixar produced Toy
Story (the first fully computer-animated feature film),
and a NATO offensive ended war in Bosnia. It was also the year
the California State Water Resources Control Board determined
that California American Water was pumping roughly three times
more water from the Carmel River than it is legally entitled
to. The board issued Order 95-10, requiring Cal Am to cut back
its use of river water to the legal limit. Here we are, 27
years later, and the cease-and-desist order is still in effect.
… And that brings us to the issue du jour, a
controversial desalination plant proposed by Cal Am, set to go
before the California Coastal Commission for a vote on
Thursday, Nov. 17. There are a lot of reasons to object to this
project … -Written by Sara Rubin, editor of the Monterey County
Weekly.
[On Thursday, Nov. 17 at 9am the Public Utilities Commission]
will consider whether to grant a permit to Cal Am to build a
4.8 million-gallons per day (mgd) desalination project that
would draw its source water through subsurface slant wells from
under the beach in Marina, on property owned by Cemex, whose
sand mine on the property has now been shut down. One
elephant in the room, which is completely omitted from the
Coastal Commission’s staff report—which recommends that the
commission approve the project, with conditions—is that it
doesn’t address who would pay for the unused capacity of the
desal plant. Right now, if Pure Water Monterey expansion is
approved, there is no projected demand for more water for at
least 20 years. -Written by David Schmalz, Monterey County Weekly
columnist.
With California butting up against 840 miles of
ocean, desalination seems an obvious solution to the
state’s water woes. However, the cost, energy demands and
environmental impacts have made the technology largely
unworkable. Three years of drought may be
changing the calculus. The latest push for desalination is
on the Monterey Peninsula, where a plan for a plant, which has
faced more than a decade of hurdles, is poised to win approval
this week from the California Coastal Commission. The $300
million-plus proposal calls for pumping seawater from wells
beneath Monterey Bay, near the city of Marina, and piping it
ashore to the popular tourist region to help relieve a longtime
water shortage… the Monterey Peninsula Water Management
District, which works with Cal Am to ensure water for the area,
said the new supply could run as much as $7,000 per acre
foot.
Thursday, Nov. 17 is shaping up to be a momentous day for the
future of the Monterey Peninsula’s water supply, as two major
state boards – the California Coastal Commission and the
California Public Utilities Commission – are set to weigh in on
two separate projects that aim to add supply to the local
portfolio. Arguably, the more weighty of the two hearings is
the Coastal Commission’s, which is meeting for three days in
the Board of Supervisors chambers in Salinas. In those chambers
on Nov. 17, the commissioners will consider whether to grant a
coastal development permit to California American Water for its
proposed desalination project in Marina, which has been a
lightning rod for controversy since first being proposed nearly
a decade ago.
Five years ago, when ExxonMobil came calling, city officials
eagerly signed over a large portion of their water supply so
the oil giant could build a $10 billion plant to make plastics
out of methane gas. A year later, they did the same for
Steel Dynamics to build a rolled-steel factory. Never
mind that Corpus Christi, a mid-sized city on the semi-arid
South Texas coast, had just raced through its 50-year water
plan 13 years ahead of schedule. Planners believed they had a
solution: large-scale seawater desalination. According to the
plan in 2019, the state’s first plant needed to be running by
early 2023 to safely meet industrial water demands that were
scheduled to come online. But Corpus Christi never got it done.
Over and over again, drought launches California into a
familiar scramble to provide enough water. Cities and towns
call for conservation and brace for shortages. Growers fallow
fields and ranchers sell cows. And thousands of people discover
that they can’t squeeze another drop from their wells. So where
can California get enough water to survive the latest dry
stretch — and the next one, and the next? Can it pump more
water from the salty Pacific Ocean? Treat waste flushed down
toilets and washed down drains? Capture runoff that flows off
streets into storm drains? Tow Antarctic icebergs to Los
Angeles? The Newsom administration unveiled a roadmap
for bolstering the state water supply.
For decades, environmentalists have decried ocean desalination
as an ecological disaster, while cost-savvy water managers have
thumbed their noses at desal’s lofty price tag. But as the
American Southwest barrels into a new era of extreme heat,
drought and aridification, officials and conservationists are
giving new consideration to the process of converting saltwater
into drinking water, and the role it may play in California’s
future. Although desalination requires significant energy,
California’s current extended drought has revived interest in
the technology. Experts are already experimenting with new
concepts such as mobile desalination units and floating buoys,
and at least four major plants will soon be operational along
the state’s coastline.
The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant has served
more than 100 billion gallons of high-quality, locally
controlled water over the past seven years – a milestone passed
in late October, as California entered a fourth consecutive
year of severe drought. The plant produces an average of more
than 50 million gallons of high-quality, locally controlled
water every day. It’s a foundational water supply for the San
Diego region that minimizes vulnerability to drought and other
water supply emergencies. The facility is the largest, most
technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination
plant in the nation, and it has provided a sustainable water
supply to residents and businesses in San Diego County since
December 2015.
If the climate crisis is coming, the water crisis is already
here. As rice fields were fallowed in California, Lake
Mead water levels almost sunk so low that Hoover Dam could no
longer generate power … Thirty percent of the world
population will face water shortages of some kind by 2025.
… The water crisis will only be solved if we realize the
once quixotic vision of desalination, turning seawater into
freshwater. Today, roughly 18,000 desalination plants produce
around 1% of the world’s freshwater, with production
concentrated in regions of high water scarcity such as Israel
and Australia. … The desalination process is so
energy-intensive that desalination plants often require
carbon-emitting power plants right next door, which can
increase costs up to 10 times higher than groundwater. -Written by Dr. Grayson Zulauf, a clean energy
entrepreneur and CEO of Resonant Link.
With longer and more frequent droughts happening around the
globe, technologies are advancing to help ease the effects of
drought and bring fresh water to dry climates. Fog
catching, desalination and atmospheric water harvesting are
three techniques used to help mitigate water shortages around
the globe.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
This issue examines desalination and the role it could play in
the future of water supply. In addition to an explanation of the
basics of the technology, the article looks at costs,
environmental impacts and groundwater application. Pilot
desalination projects are featured, including a much-touted
Carlsbad, Calif., facility that promises to substantially boost
that region’s water supply.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor
will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have
health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in
the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses
a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality
and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential –
but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public
television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta always has been at the mercy of
river flows and brackish tides.
Before human intervention, salty ocean water from the San
Francisco Bay flooded the vast Delta marshes during dry summers
when mountain runoff ebbed. Then, during winter, heavy runoff
from the mountains repelled sea water intrusion.
Recurrent droughts and uncertainties about future water supplies
have led several California communities to look to treat salty
water for supplemental supplies through a process known as
desalination.
Desalination removes salt and other dissolved minerals from water
and is one method to reclaim water for other uses. This can occur
with ocean water along the coast and in the interior at spots
that draw from ancient salt water deep under the surface or where
groundwater has been tainted
by too much salt.
It seems not a matter of if but when seawater desalination will
fulfill the promise of providing parts of California with a
reliable, drought-proof source of water. With a continuing
drought and uncertain water deliveries, the state is in the grip
of a full-on water crisis, and there are many people who see
desalination as a way to provide some relief to areas struggling
to maintain an adequate water supply.
“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” – Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
For time immemorial, the seas of the Earth have been seen as an
enticing but unreachable source of fresh water. Separating the
salt from ocean water was always a cost prohibitive process,
primarily reserved to wealthy Middle Eastern nations and
small-scale operations such as ocean-bound vessels and small
islands. Otherwise, through the evolution of modern civilization,
man has depended upon lakes, rivers and groundwater – a supply
that comprises less than 3 percent of the planet’s total water.
