That’s according to the latest estimate from South Coast Water District, which has spent more than $10 million and 20 years planning for a desalination plant to help stabilize supplies for residents who currently depend on pricey and frequently restricted imports from the Colorado River or the State Water Project.
For the pilot project, an Iceberg-class unit, the 9th generation of this technology which has been refined over seven years in the ocean environment, will be deployed along the Fort Bragg coast.
During the pilot project, one Iceberg-class unit is expected to produce up to 13,200 GPD (50 m3/day) over a 12-month period while emitting zero greenhouse gases and saving 1 ton of CO2e per year for each m3 of fresh water produced daily, compared to diesel-powered desalination plants.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the largest in the United States, and has the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of water per day, according to its website.
In 2021, as the Clean Energy Alliance began serving residential and business customers in Del Mar, Solana Beach and Carlsbad, CEA and San Diego County Water Authority officials held discussions about the CEA serving the Channelside account, according to the CEA staff report. But the water authority elected to opt out of service from the CEA, which is an option for all customers within the agency’s member […]
Funded by Proposition 1, a $7.545 billion bond approved by voters in 2014, the Water Desalination Grant Program supports the construction and design of pilot projects that desalinate naturally occurring brackish and ocean water for drinking water supply.
To date, DWR has awarded over $82 million in Proposal 1 desalination grants ranging from over $100,000 to $10 million to support 20 projects. Three projects are currently under construction, including the Antioch Brackish Water Desalination Project, the City of Camarillo’s North Pleasant Valley Desalination Project, and the brackish desalter in the city of Santa Monica. Two of the projects will contribute to the Governor’s goal of increasing brackish groundwater desalination production by 28,000 acre-feet per year by 2030.
Funded by Proposition 1, a $7.545 billion bond approved by voters in 2014, the Water Desalination Grant Program supports the construction and design of pilot projects that desalinate naturally occurring brackish and ocean water for drinking water supply.
The district study estimated the project could cost $122 million to nearly $194 million to construct and produce about 5,325 acre-feet of water per year for the district at a cost of $1,800 to $2,900 per acre-foot.
The low-interest loan is intended to help the plant’s owner, Poseidon Resources, satisfy state regulations for protecting fish and other marine life at the Claude “Bud” Lewis plant. The money, awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is estimated to save ratepayers about $54 million.
The project has been approved by the California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission. The desalination plant will use subsurface slant wells to draw seawater in from beneath the ocean floor and pump it to the treatment facility, where it will undergo reverse osmosis and disinfection to produce clean drinking water.
SLO’s first phase is gathering information and seeing what other water agencies might want to purchase the potable water produced by the seawater desalination facility, said Matt Young, Santa Barbara County’s water agency manager.
There’s no financial commitment for participating in this preliminary phase of the project, Young added.