Poseidon Water and the San Diego County Water Authority said Wednesday they are monitoring the oil spill off Huntington Beach and are prepared to protect the Carlsbad desalination plant.
The two organizations said in a statement that oil from Saturday’s underwater pipeline leak has not affected operations at the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, which supplies nearly 10% of the county’s drinking water.
CARLSBAD, Calif. (Oct. 6, 2021) – Poseidon Water and the San Diego County Water Authority issued the following joint statement in response to the recent oil spill off the coast of Orange County:
“The oil spill has not affected the operations of the Claude ‘Bud’ Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. The facility is San Diego County’s largest single source of locally produced drinking water, generating nearly 80 billion gallons of drought-proof water since operations started in December 2015.
“Water quality in Carlsbad’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon – the desalination plant’s intake source – is continually monitored for more than a half-dozen seawater parameters, including oil-in-water concentration. Per State of California requirements in the facility’s drinking water permit, the desalination plant will shut down if the hydrocarbon concentration of source seawater reaches 300 parts per billion. While there has been no indication of oil from Orange County reaching Carlsbad, the facility’s operating team will continue to closely monitor intake water quality.
“In addition, Poseidon Water and the Water Authority are working with local, state, and federal agencies to assess potential preemptive actions in case conditions change, including installation of a floating boom at the mouth of the lagoon. That would protect the lagoon for marine life and ensure the desalination plant can stay online, which minimizes the San Diego region’s demands on other water resources.”
Reservoirs continue to dry up in Marin County and everyone agrees that conservation efforts are ‘not’ where they need to be. Now, the Marin Municipal Water District is looking at some expensive options to tackle the severe drought. “We’re facing historic drought conditions,” Emma Detwiler said.
Ocean desalination has been named as one of the South Coast Water District’s top priorities—even more so as California undergoes an unprecedented water shortage.
In 2008, a Pilot Ocean Desalination Project was first initiated at Doheny State Beach, and the facility operated successfully for 21 months between 2010 and 2012. Subsequent to this effort, the District has proceeded with planning for an Ocean Desalination Facility.
With much of California and other western U.S. states experiencing significant drought, the need to pursue further advancements in desalination has never been greater. This was a central theme of an Aug. 11 webinar, titled “Discussion on Desalination — Treatments, Research, and the Future,” conducted by the WateReuse Association.
The city of Antioch’s water supply has been challenged in recent years by a variety of factors. But the Brackish Water Desalination Project, the first desalination project of its kind in the five-county Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, is intended to improve the reliability of the city’s water.
The city filed its notice of preparation for the project just over four years ago and then broke ground on the plant in February of this year.
Shattering the stillness of a frigid January moonlit sky, the sunrise’s amber aura glimmers over the Tinajas Altas mountain range — giving way to a sandscape of semi-succulent shrubs.
The sun’s increasingly insistent rays animate an otherwise desolate desert corridor that links the city of Yuma, Arizona, to the San Luis Port of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. White school buses shuttle Mexican agricultural workers to Arizonan farm acreage, home to America’s heartland of winter leafy greens.
With the city’s sewage water recycling system moving forward and the desalination plant in Carlsbad already pumping out drinkable water, the San Diego region has some of the most ambitious water projects in the state.
Those are part of a long-term strategy that San Diego water managers say will provide the region sufficient supplies through 2045.
Nevertheless, the San Diego County Water Authority earlier this month urged customers to voluntarily reduce water use by 15 percent following a similar statewide request by Gov. Gavin Newsom. It was more an act of solidarity than one of actual need.
With the city’s sewage water recycling system moving forward and the desalination plant in Carlsbad already pumping out drinkable water, the San Diego region has some of the most ambitious water projects in the state.
Those are part of a long-term strategy that San Diego water managers say will provide the region sufficient supplies through 2045.
Nevertheless, the San Diego County Water Authority earlier this month urged customers to voluntarily reduce water use by 15 percent following a similar statewide request by Gov. Gavin Newsom. It was more an act of solidarity than one of actual need.
Read the rest of the column by Michael Smolens in The San Diego Union-Tribune: https://bit.ly/3sPTS0u
(Editors note: This is an excerpt from a column written by Michael Smolens)
