Tag Archive for: Desalination Plant

Water District Calls on Coastal Commission to Deny Cal Am’s Desalination Permit.

To a large extent, the fate of several multi-million dollar water projects on the Monterey Peninsula is in the hands of the California Coastal Commission. The question is whether the commission will grant a development permit for a desalination plant proposed by California American Water—or will the commission deny the permit and implicitly endorse a smaller project that would provide new water to the area by expanding the regional wastewater recycling facility. A vote is expected at the August 12-14 meeting of the commission.

Opinion: Poseidon’s Desalination Plant Threatens our Climate and Human Right to Clean Water

As California continues to struggle with the coronavirus pandemic, leaders must ensure fundamental human rights like clean water. It is essential that we do not allow this crisis to tip the scales in favor of polluters and private water corporations.

Opinion: How to Waste $1 Billion in Less than a Minute

Why would a public agency support an unnecessary and risky billion-dollar desalination plant and let a private utility profit hundreds of millions of dollars at the public’s expense? Here’s the story.

Carlsbad Desalination Plant Running at Full Capacity with ‘Shelter In Place’

When your business is water, your business is essential. Over at the desalination plant in Carlsbad, it’s anything but business as usual.

Community Thanks Desalination Plant Workers For Sacrifice

Expressions of gratitude and support have poured in from a grateful community to the ten volunteers sheltering in place at the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant in San Diego County. As people learned about their effort to maintain plant operations and keep the water flowing during the COVID-19 pandemic, residents responded by expressing their heartful thanks through messages, photos and artwork.

“The Desal Plant employees were overwhelmed with the community support they have received,” said Jessica Jones, Poseidon Water director of communications. “They read and enjoyed every message, photo, and drawing.  The support was just the boost in morale that they needed to finish out their 21-days onsite.”

Utility Workers, the Forgotten Heroes of this Pandemic

We’re grateful for nurses, doctors, physician assistants, respiratory therapists and so many others in the medical field. We’re also grateful for people who work in grocery stores, the restaurants delivering and offering curbside food, and all the delivery workers bringing packages to those of us self-quarantining or social distancing at home. When sending up thanks for all these people, many of us forget another critical job that must go on during the COVID-19 pandemic: utility workers who keep our water clean and flowing and our lights — and laptops — on.

How utility workers are doing their jobs in a much different world

Austin Energy is one utility that agreed to speak with 3p. We reached out to the company to find out what it had instituted in the face of COVID-19. The utility activated an Incident Command System at the beginning of March and formed a “Pandemic Planning Team” that meets virtually every day. Almost 70 percent of AE’s staff are teleworking and the rest, including line workers and some call center staff, have to report to job sites as essential personnel. Those essential workers have a daily temperature screening, observe social distancing where possible, and sanitize equipment regularly. Fortunately for these workers, so far Austin is not a hot spot.

The same cannot be said for New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Utility workers there face a starker reality. As of publication, Con Edison, the utility serving the city, has 170 confirmed cases and three deaths with about half of its personnel working remotely. Likewise, throughout the state, utilities are feeling the pressure.

For example, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the grid operator for New York state, has some essential staff living at control centers outside Albany in response to the shelter-in-place guidance at operation hubs from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Likewise, 200 National Grid personnel are living on-site and will be replaced by a second set of 200 after a month, continuing to cycle as long as necessary.

Water utilities face the same hurdles, as well as additional challenges. There are a lot more water utilities across the country than electric utilities, and many of them are very small, some with staff in the single digits. Further, some utilities have to deal with keeping water systems going when people are flushing disinfecting wipes down the toilet, clogging up sewer lines. As with the case of the power generation sector, utility workers who staff water systems across the U.S. are also sheltering in place to ensure continued, reliable service.

Proposed Settlement Reached in Regional Desal Lawsuit

Eight years after the regional desalination project fell apart, the legal battle over its unraveling appears to be nearing a conclusion.

A proposed settlement has been reached among the parties involved including California American Water, Monterey County and the county Water Resources Agency, Marina Coast Water District, and RMC Water and Environment regarding the failed desal project. It was presented on Monday in the San Francisco Superior Court overseeing the long-running lawsuit.

Huntington Beach Desalination Plant Eyes Approval, But Foes Turn Out In Force

With Poseidon Water’s plans for a Huntington Beach desalination plant approaching the homestretch, critics were as adamant as ever at a Friday workshop, where dozens complained the proposal is environmentally flawed, unneeded and would jack up water rates.

The meeting of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board was called to review a draft permit and solicit public comment in advance of a scheduled April 3 vote on the final permit.

Approval rides on whether the board determines the drought-proof project will “use the best available site, design, technology and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake and mortality of all forms of marine life.”

Huntington Beach Desalination Plant Appears Headed for a Key Approval

Poseidon Water’s long-delayed plans to build one of the West Coast’s biggest seawater desalination plants on the Huntington Beach coastline appear headed for a key approval.

A regional water board is proposing to grant Poseidon permits for a $1-billion desalting facility that would annually produce enough drinking water to supply 100,000 Orange County households.

West Basin Approves Desalination-Plant Impact Report — While Dozens of Foes Stand Against It

West Basin Municipal Water District took the next steps Monday night, Nov. 18, toward building a desalination facility in El Segundo, a project that has drawn fierce opposition from conservation groups — including some who staged a rally before the meeting.

Although not a go-ahead for the actual project, the board’s certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report in a 4-1 vote means the water district can move ahead in planning the next phases of the project.

Director Carol Kwan, who represents Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and parts of Torrance, was the lone dissenting vote.