Desalination can be expensive and time consuming due to the complexity of the treatment process, which is why sustainable, energy-efficient desalination is at the forefront of research into developing clean water technologies.
During a meeting of the State Board of Food and Agriculture on Tuesday, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said the administration is continuing to advance the Water Resilience Portfolio and plans to complete the policy document soon. … The plan has stalled since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of California.
With its proposed Doheny desalination plant facing hurdles because of costs and a lack of partner water districts, the South Coast Water District board has agreed to spend $73,000 to study a scaled-down alternative. The district has spent $7.9 million so far for the preliminary design, environmental impact report and other early development steps for a standalone four-well plant near Doheny State Beach. And it is continuing its pursuit of necessary permits, which it hopes to have in hand by mid-2021.
A Regional Water Board vote on the desalination plant in Huntington Beach could be filed within the next two months, but is the project on thin ice after several questions and concerns were raised during a virtual workshop?
The Chula Vista Elementary School District’s “Innovation Week 2020” from May 26 to 29 will make a virtue of going virtual, inviting the community to participate along with its students in four live science education events. The activities include a Hydro Station lesson about groundwater aquifers.
The Hydro Station is an interactive educational space at the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility, operated as a joint partnership between the school district, the Otay Water District, and the Sweetwater Authority.
“We’re proud that the school district can continue offering its programs at a time that’s needed now more than ever,” says Tenille Otero, Otay Water District communications officer. “Even better, is that anyone outside of the school district can experience these wonderful programs that the district offers.”
“We are very excited to bring our innovative learning experiences to the San Diego region and beyond through these live, online events,” said Michael Bruder, instructional services coordinator with the Chula Vista Elementary School District. “We are also grateful to have the support of our wonderful community partners in making this happen.”
The Hydro Station is an interactive educational space at the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility, operated as a joint partnership between the Chula Vista Elementary School District, the Otay Water District, and the Sweetwater Authority. Photo: Otay Water District
On Thursday, May 28, at 1 p.m. Hydro Station instructor Christy Bystrak will lead “Building an Edible Aquifer.”
Participants will learn about the geology of an aquifer including confining layers, contamination, recharge, and water tables, while constructing their own version using items found at home in the kitchen, including clear plastic cups, straws, food coloring, soda, ice cream, and different types of small candy or cereal.
Additional presentations include “Engineering Superhero Tech,” “Cooking Up S’More Energy,” and “Structures for Survival.”
Located in southern San Diego County, the Chula Vista Elementary School District’s 46 schools serve more than 29,600 students. Schools serve a vibrant, diverse community that features a blend of residential areas, recreational facilities, open space, and light industry.
CVESD offers innovative partnerships such as the Hydro Station project with the Otay Water District and Sweetwater Authority as a vital part of its technology-based curriculum to develop students’ creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approved a rescission of the waste discharge order for Camp Pendleton’s California Sewage Treatment Plant No. 9.
The 7-0 board vote May 13 eliminates the waste discharge requirements for the Las Pulgas plant which has been replaced.
The RWQCB initially issued a waste discharge order for the plant in 1998. The sewage has since been diverted to Camp Pendleton’s Southern Regional Tertiary Treatment Plant and Northern Regional Tertiary Treatment Plant, which supports the production of recycled water for landscape irrigation and seawater intrusion mitigation.
Between 1999 and 2012 the United States Marine Corps received 12 staff enforcement letters regarding California Sewage Treatment Plant No. 9 and three notices of violation for the waste discharge order. During that time 94 violations for deficient monitoring, overflow events, and exceeding the pH limit occurred. No violations took place during the final seven years of the California Sewage Treatment Plant No. 9 operation.
The Poseidon desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach could be facing rough waters ahead, as several regulatory officials on Friday expressed concerns over the controversial plan..
During a Regional Water Quality Control Board workshop held online, three of the agency’s six board members persistently pressed local officials about the need, consumer cost and environmental harm of the $1 billion project.
The board is tentatively scheduled to a vote July 31 on one of two permits still needed by Poseidon Water before it can negotiate a final contract and begin construction on a project that that company has been pursuing for two decades. The proposal needs four votes from the regional board before it can go before the Coastal Commission for its last permit.
The Orange County Water District, the prospective purchaser of the water, has been attracted to the desalination project because it’s drought-proof and would protect its service area of 2.5 million residents from shortages of imported water. Currently, about 23% of the district’s water is imported.
A state regional water board is drawing public criticism in Orange County for holding meetings on a controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach, while public participation can only be done virtually amid the coronavirus health crisis.
The Santa Ana Regional Quality Control Board is meeting this morning to hold a public hearing on Poseidon Water’s request for a permit renewal for their facility, which would be built on 12 acres of a power plant and produce 50 million gallons of water per day, according to water district staff.
The board of Monterey One Water recently voted not to certify a supplemental environmental impact report for an expansion of Pure Water Monterey. While the expansion was a technical concept that might provide additional water for the Peninsula, the Board action injected some much-needed clear thinking and foresight into a critical topic for the Monterey Peninsula. It’s not about desal versus expansion or public versus private ownership. It’s about creating an adequate and reliable water supply for our future.
Initially, the expansion was described as a backup to the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project yet would provide substantially less water, still leaving the Peninsula with a constrained water supply.
In a bid to remove salt and other minerals from ocean salt water, otherwise known as desalination, without using bulky hydraulic pumps, a team from Virginia Tech has developed a simplified pump composed of a fluidic flexible matrix composite material.
