As California continues through its second year in a severe drought, regulators are looking for ways to provide water to California. Water Desalination is a hot topic. Regulators are working on approving the construction of a new desalination plant in Huntington Beach California. This would provide clean drinking water to Californians. However, environmentalists say that it will take its toll on the ocean’s levels of salinity and could decimate the current ocean life and natural balance.
The Poseidon Water company is proposing to build a $1.4billion dollar desalination plant. They would begin groundbreaking by the end of 2022, and this new plant would produce 50million gallons of drinking water daily. They have worked on navigating state regulations for 22years, and have spent more than $100million dollars complying with regulations. The company has one more regulation to pass, California Coastal Commission. Poseidon’s vice president Scott Maloni says, “The Pacific Ocean is the largest reservoir in the world,” and “It’s always full.”
Voting will take place towards the end of 2021, and it looks favorable to the Poseidon project. The authorities of the water board are requiring that Poseidon increase their commitments in rehabilitating both the Bolsa Chica wetlands reserve and build an artificial reef.
This is not Poseidon’s first desalination plant. The company has owned and operated a similar plan in Carlsbad California since 2015. The plant currently produces 50million gallons of drinkable water every day. This is enough water for 10% of San Diego’s water needs and provides water to over 400,000 homes. Similarly, this new plant would be able to provide 16% of the homes in Orange County water district.
Orange County Water District President, Steve Sheldon, Voted in favor of the plant under the provisional deal to purchase 56,000 acre-feet of water per year for 30 years. He had found that the environmental concerns were justified but minimal and that the ocean life would have little impact. In the Carlsbad plant, .02% of plankton are at risk of being sucked into their filters, to combat this effect on wildlife, the intake screens for the water will be finer at the Huntington plant. There are no endangered species at the Huntington location. However, a study in 2005 showed that in similar intake water plants, 19.4 billion larvae were caught in the intake screens, and 2.7 million fish and other marine life were killed by intake equipment. In addition, desalination does create a by-product of salty brine in a 1:1 ratio. In Carlsbad, the salty brine is mixed with salty water and then returned to the ocean, and the dense brine falls to the bottom of the ocean floor. This brine will kill off the marine life within 421 acres of the ocean habitat according to a Santa Ana regional Water Control Board staff report.
Desalination is expensive and has added $5 per month to the individual water bills of current Carl’s bad residents, Huntington residents can expect anywhere from a $3-$6 raise in their monthly bills.
