California

California American Water, the nation’s largest publicly traded water and wastewater company, plans to build the plant to pump ocean water, desalinate it and provide drinking water to 100,000 people on the Monterey Peninsula. The largely Latino, agricultural community of Castroville would also receive the water at a discount. 

The plant would produce about 4.8 million gallons of water per day when it begins operating, with the possibility of increasing production later. California American Water hopes to have it operating by the end of 2027. The water company is seeking to bolster […]

The California Coastal Commission voted 8-to-2 despite the ecological risks to the Monterey Bay coast, high costs of the water and a divide between affluent and lower-income communities.

The plant would produce about 4.8 million gallons of water per day when it begins operating, with the possibility of increasing production later. California American Water hopes to have it operating by the end of 2027. The water company is seeking to bolster local supplies after state regulators ordered it to stop its decades-old practice of unlawfully diverting more than its share from the Carmel River.  

The project was proposed by California American Water, which would use the plant to deliver millions of gallons of water to about 100,000 of its customers on the Monterey Peninsula, which are predominantly wealthier communities: the city of Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel-by-the-Sea and the neighborhoods of Pebble Beach.

The project is anticipated to supply 40 percent of the Peninsula’s water needs.

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A desalination plant is moving forward in Orange County with California Coastal Commission approval just a few months after another, uch more expensive project, failed the same test.

Some of the experts that testified at the CCC hearing on the Doheny plant called comparisons between the two projects “ludicrous.” The Doheny plant will only cost $140 million, rather than $1.4 billion, for example. The Poseidon project was also located in Central Orange County, which is located on top of a large underground aquifer. 

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The plant, which is expected to produce 5 million gallons of drinking water per day, is the first desalination facility that the Coastal Commission has approved since more strict regulations were adopted in 2019.

However, it is still opposed by various groups, including several Sierra Club activists who spoke against the Doheny project at this week’s hearing, when they expressed their concerns about the impact on marine life and the amount of energy required to pump ocean water through the plant’s reverse osmosis filters.

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The Dana Point desalination plant would produce about 5 million gallons of potable water daily with the ability to eventually generate 15 million gallons a day. But an increase in volume would require further review and a larger pipeline, the report said.

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The water district says Doheny State Beach is drought proof. The Pacific Ocean could provide as much five million gallons a day of drinking water.

Currently the district imports about 85% of its water for some 35,000 customers.

The other 15% comes from this plant where unusable storm creek runoff is treated through reverse osmosis then sent to homes and businesses.

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