Giant Rosarito Beach Desalination Project Faces Scrutiny

With Tijuana and other rapidly growing coastal cities heavily dependent on the Colorado River, Baja California urgently needs to find new water sources. Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid’s administration has offered a solution: Build the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, enough to ensure a supply for decades to come. But plans for the reverse-osmosis facility in Rosarito Beach, a project that at full capacity would desalinate 100 million gallons daily, have come under unprecedented scrutiny at a politically sensitive moment.