California hopes to ease drought woes with ocean water

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

 What will be the largest water desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere has been built in San Diego.
The $1 billion plant, being built by a private company, will suck in 100 million gallons of water per day from the Pacific Ocean, strip out the salt using an elaborate filtration system and turn it into 50 million gallons of drinking water, enough for 300,000 San Diego County residents.
"There is no more cheap water available," said Bill Bliven, who currently resides in the San Diego and was back in Rhode Island for a family funeral and took the time out for a interview.

 One of my many hobbies is dirt bike competition and we traveled up into the mountain area and the reservoirs were empty and then talked with the local people and were told last years snowfall was 10% of a normal year. The rain cycle runs in a ten year period and this year
should show a trend of more needed rain and for a additional two years. Bliven is allowed to use outside water on two designated days and if caught using water on any other day will be fined.
  Bliven's same neighborhood had a brush fire stop just below his property line two years ago.

  The company currently imports a majority of its water from drought-ravaged parts of California and the Colorado River Basin. San Diego will buy all of the water the Carlsbad plant will produce starting next year. Water bills will increase about $5 to $7 per month to cover the cost.
"It will represent 7 percent of our total water supply," Bliven said. "It's a significant chunk of water that, in the event of a drought, will be 100 percent reliable for this region."


 I have doing my research and I found that the only other major desalination plant in the country is in Tampa, Florida. Until now, they have been considered too expensive to build and operate in the U.S. But California's unending drought has made it necessary.

And to citizens who may complain that water prices are going to be too high, Bliven says, "if you go and turn on your faucet and no water comes out is that water too expensive? If you don't have it, it's not too expensive."
At least two more desalination plants are in the planning stage along the California coast.