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Why is it axiomatic among California’s water agencies and policymakers that large scale desalination is inconceivable in California? That certainly isn’t the case in other arid locales. In 2024, an estimated 30 million acre feet of fresh water was produced by desalination plants worldwide.

On the coast of the Red Sea, about 60 miles south of the port city Jeddah, and only slightly further from the inland city of Mecca, the Shoaiba Desalination Complex produces nearly 900,000 acre feet of fresh water per year. Situated on approximately 1,200 acres, this one installation could, if it were located in California, supply more than 12 percent of ALL California’s urban water consumption. That’s not very much land, for an awful lot of water.

California’s water resources control board can regulate groundwater usage by farmers in Kings County, after the state’s appellate court threw out a preliminary injunction and overruled a demurer.

The pair of rulings means that farmers in the county will have to start metering and reporting how much water they draw from the ground, and pay the state fees of $300 per well and $20 per acre-foot of water used.

The San Joaquin River continues to sit at the center of California’s most complex water disputes, and Los Banos remains one of the communities most directly affected. As state and regional leaders debate over mining, water storage, flooding, fish habitats, and groundwater management, the outcomes will shape how water moves through the Central Valley for generations, and how much of it reaches local communities like Los Banos.

At the western edge of the river system, just north of Los Banos, the B.F. Sisk Dam and San Luis Reservoir play a key role in storing and distributing water from Northern California to the rest of the state. Expansion of the reservoir, now underway, will increase capacity but has raised questions about who benefits most. Local observers note that while Silicon Valley and coastal regions may receive much of the additional water, Los Banos continues to serve as the logistical and environmental gateway where the reservoir, aqueduct, and wildlife refuges intersect.