Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/659479
the pinch of increased conservation requirements, de- spite the huge water resource just steps away—the Paci c Ocean. But much to the chagrin of shipwrecked sailors and thirsty Angelenos, this vast reservoir of salt water re- quires a great deal of amendment to make it potable. Due to high processing costs and environmental chal- lenges, desalination technology has been a far-from-real- istic option for generating clean drinking water. Howev- er, as hopes for an abundant El Niño winter solving L.A.'s water woes have evaporated, fears about the devastating impacts of a long-term drought have rebirthed visions of ocean desalination as a feasible solution for sustaining and increasing our water supply. Last December, a billion-dollar reverse-osmosis desali- nation plant in Carlsbad, Calif., began pumping 50 mil- lion gallons of fresh water each day, meeting 7–10 percent of San Diego county's water needs. ere are at least a dozen more plants on the drawing board across the state, including one in the proposal stage near the El Segun- do-Manhattan Beach border, and another in Huntington Beach, which is a 50-million gallon per day facility al- ready in late-stage development. In Santa Barbara, a desalination plant built in the late 1980s and operational until the wet years of the early '90s, when it was put on long-term standby mode, is scheduled to be back in service by October of this year, and to meet up to 30 percent of the city's water demands. A new policy for desalination was created last May by the California State Water Resources Control Board, set- ting up clean water standards as well as regulations for building below-ground pipes to manage water ow, with the goal of lessening the environmental and nancial im- pact of any of the slated new plants. Frances Spivy-Weber, vice-chair of the board, con rmed these regulations will apply to any new desalination plants in California, but do not cover the Carlsbad plant, having been adopted a er it was approved. Spivy-Weber cautioned that desalination might not work in every area. "My goal is that the policy will serve as a foundation for agencies and cities to look at desalina- tion and fairly evaluate its cost," she said. "In some cases it will work; in other cases it will be too costly; in other cases in won't be appropriate." RECYCLED VS SALT According to the Orange County Water District, "Pu- rifying wastewater is about one-third the cost of ocean desalination, because there are far fewer dissolved solids (salts) to remove from wastewater (1,000 mg/L as com- pared to 35,000 mg/L in ocean water). Removing that high concentration of salts requires three times more en- ergy, additional membranes, and a shorter reverse-osmo- sis membrane lifespan." L.A.'s Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant currently provides 40 million gallons of highly treated recycled water each day, with plans to nearly double that amount by 2020. But the West Basin Municipal Water District is proposing a massive new $300 million desalination plant in the South Bay, which would be the rst full- edged desalination plant in Los Angeles County. e goal is to convert 60 million gallons of seawater a day into drinking water for the 17 cities served by West Basin. Ocean watchdog Heal the Bay, along with several local mayors and the Manhattan Beach city council, has raised strenuous objections, with concerns ranging from the en- vironment to the coastline to cost. e district is sched- uled to release its environmental impact report for the project in June. EL NIÑO DISAPPOINTMENT Due to the signi cantly higher cost and hazards of these desalination processes, Spivy-Weber stressed that water conservation is not only better for the environment, it's more cost-e ective. "If California wants to grow—in terms of numbers of people, but also its economy—it's going to need a little more breathing room in its use of water," she said. " at's why conservation has been so important. Because it's been that extra amount that has been needed to allow for drought and growth." CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 Reactivating the Santa Barbara desalination plant Fish killed by toxic brine Santa Barbara original desalination plant Salt pile residue, courtesy EFD Depleted ocean, EFD 26 wholelifetimes.com