South Coast Water District plans to decrease its reliance on imported water by creating a local, reliable, drought-proof supply through the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project. The project would also provide emergency water should the delivery of imported water be disrupted by earthquakes or other natural disasters.
Earlier this month, the California Coastal Commission approved plans for a desalination plant near Doheny State Beach. In May, the commission voted against a plant in Huntington Beach. Today we look at the differences.
The greenlighted $140 million desalination plant in south Orange County’s city of Dana Point includes technology preferred by environmentalists and regulators and could provide up to 5 million gallons per day. Unlike the rejected $1.4 billion plant in Huntington Beach (that would have produced 50 million gallons per day), the Doheny Ocean Desalination project location has unique hydrogeology that allows advanced slant wells (shown in graphics on the right) to draw water from beneath the ocean floor to protect marine life.
A $140 million desalination plant is expected to be approved by California regulators on Thursday as the U.S. state contends with how to convert ocean water into drinking water amid the worst drought in 1,200 years.
Just five months ago, the Coastal Commission by an 11-0 vote rejected a privately owned plant that would have been 10 times the size of the proposed South Coast Water District’s Doheny Ocean Desalination Project in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles.
California is currently suffering through its worst drought in over 1,200 years, a fact painfully illustrated by a hot, dry summer, nearly empty reservoirs, and a historically diminished Colorado River. New water restrictions have gone into effect across the state. As California scrambles to conserve water, desalination plants, facilities that use reverse osmosis filters to purify seawater and transform it into drinking water, have increasingly become part of the discussion.
As the State of California faces a record drought, ocean desalination has been highlighted as a potentially more reliable alternative to imported water.
Following the California Coastal Commission’s unanimous vote to deny permits for the Brookfield-Poseidon Desalination plant in Huntington Beach last month, the South Coast Water District is working to obtain all major permits for its own desalination plant near Doheny by the end of the year.
While the progress of the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project appears to now be gaining steam, South Coast Water District staff members are aware of the process’ tediousness.
The project, which would construct a facility on SCWD-owned property near San Juan Creek to draw water through the ocean, remove all the salt, and distribute clean drinking water throughout the district—including Dana Point and partnering entities—has been in the works for more than 15 years.
The Dana Point City Council last week voiced continued support for South Coast Water District’s desalination plant, which looks to establish a local source for drinking water and reduce dependency on imported water.
In a unanimous decision, councilmembers voted to send a letter to the San Diego Water Board, imploring the agency to renew the South Orange County Wastewater Authority’s permit to discharge wastewater through the San Juan Creek Ocean Outfall.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
