It's about time.
If California doesn't realize they don't own the Colorado River the other states and the federal government will remind them.
From the Los Angeles Times, November 7:
They used to call California ocean desalination a disaster. But water crisis brings new look
For decades, environmentalists have decried ocean desalination as an ecological disaster, while cost-savvy water managers have thumbed their noses at desal’s lofty price tag.
But as the American Southwest barrels into a new era of extreme heat, drought and aridification, officials and conservationists are giving new consideration to the process of converting saltwater into drinking water, and the role it may play in California’s future.
Although desalination requires significant energy, California’s current extended drought has revived interest in the technology. Experts are already experimenting with new concepts such as mobile desalination units and floating buoys, and at least four major plants will soon be operational along the state’s coastline.
David Feldman, director of Water UCI at UC Irvine, said desalination could eventually provide “somewhere between 10% and half” of California’s potable water — with one caveat.
“Before we can even estimate what percentage of California’s potable water would come from desal, we’re going to have to consider whether or not water agencies feel confident that they have exhausted other less expensive and less energy-intensive options,” said Feldman, who is also a professor of urban planning and public policy at the university.
“In certain communities, desal may be your best option. On the other hand, it may be your second or third best option in terms of affordability, in terms of overall cost, in terms of public acceptability with respect to aesthetics and land use,” he said.
Indeed, desalination is not without downsides. In addition to high energy costs, the process can harm marine life, which can get trapped in pump systems that draw ocean water.
And then there is the brine — the salty, sludgy byproduct of desalination that typically gets released back into the ocean at the end of the process. A global survey of desalination in 2019 found that plants produce about 5 billion cubic feet of salty brine every day — 50% more than previous estimates. High concentrations of brine can reduce oxygen and increase toxicity in marine environments. That’s caused some to worry about what what decades — or even centuries — of desalination could do to the ocean.
“Ocean water is going to be collected daily and dumped daily. What does that look like for future generations?” said Lydia Ponce, an activist with the Society of Native Nations. Ponce was a vocal opponent of a proposed desalination plant near Doheny State Beach in Orange County, which the California Coastal Commission recently approved.
Experts are working to solve many of desalination’s challenges, however. The Doheny plant, for example, will draw seawater through slanted intake wells that run beneath the sea floor. Since they avoid contact with open water, officials say the wells will nearly eliminate the chances of marine life being sucked into intake pipes.
The facility also plans to “commingle” its brine with South Coast Water District wastewater pipes, diluting it before expelling about two miles out to sea. Though the harm from brine is not completely eliminated, the Coastal Commission said the method was environmentally preferred, and officials say it might serve as a model for future operations.
But desalination in California remains a lightning rod for controversy, and the Doheny plant raised significant opposition. Among the project’s opponents was Conner Everts, co-chair of the Desal Response Group, who said he thinks desalination has no place in California’s water supply....
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