Countywide poll uncovers widespread concern over Orange County’s water supply; 70% of county voters support seawater desalination
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 2, 2008 at 5:52 amFrom Market Watch:
Today the Orange County Business Council and the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council released the results of a jointly sponsored public opinion survey measuring Orange County residents’ attitudes toward the county’s water supply. The poll of registered voters uncovered widespread concern about water reliability and revealed broad support for tapping the Pacific Ocean as one way to address the county and region’s water shortages.
The countywide telephone survey conducted the week of September 22nd demonstrated the public is attune to Orange County’s water supply crisis as county officials scramble to prepare for additional cuts to the county’s imported water supply (Click here to view the Memorandum: http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/200810/471678_OCBC-OCBTCWATERPOLLMEMO.doc).
Some of the key findings from the survey include:
– 87% of respondents believe that Orange County needs new sources of
fresh water.
– 72% of respondents believe that seawater desalination is a good idea.
– 71% believe that local water agencies should add desalinated seawater
to their overall water portfolio.
– 61% said would pay a few dollars more on their monthly water bill for
high quality desalinated water that is drought-proof and reliable.“Orange County residents overwhelmingly support innovative solutions to improve water reliability,” said Lucy Dunn, President of the Orange County Business Council. “The state has already approved one seawater desalination plant for San Diego County; now Orange County must also ensure a local, drought-proof water supply for our residents and businesses. We urge state and local officials to move quickly and approve the proposed Desalination Facility in Huntington Beach,” she said.
Read the rest of this story from Market Watch by clicking here.
Purifying Water with Nano-Particles: A company says 3-D nanoparticles boost the efficiency of water purification
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 29, 2008 at 8:44 amFrom the MIT Technology Review:
Adding nanoparticles to a water purifying membrane can double its efficiency, according to a startup company based in Los Angeles. With global water usage on the increase and fresh water in limited supply, the company, NanoH2O, says its novel approach could make such purification technology a viable solution to a growing problem.
Reverse osmosis–feeding water through a semipermeable membrane to filter out impurities–is widely considered to be the most effective way to desalinate water. But it is very energy-intensive, and therefore expensive, because water has to be forced through the membrane under pressure. A key way to reduce the costs involved is to increase the water throughput for the same pressure. But for many years, improvements in membrane technology have been incremental at best, says Jeff Green, NanoH2O founder and CEO.
NanoH2O has found that adding porous nanoparticles to membranes can dramatically increase the efficiency with which water can be filtered. “Under similar pressure, twice as much water goes through,” says Green. In a desalination plant, this increased permeability would reduce energy requirements by 20 percent, or increase water productivity by 70 percent for the same cost, he adds.
Read more from the MIT Technology Review by clicking here.
Water board sued over desalination approval
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 20, 2008 at 6:21 amFrom KPBS in San Diego:
Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The suit charges the board didn’t properly study how a Carlsbad desalination plant would harm marine life. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.
San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation filed the civil lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court.
The lawsuit says the regional water board should have done a detailed analysis of how the desalination plant would affect marine life before conditionally approving a plan by Poseidon Resources to deal with those affects.
More from KPBS by clicking here.
Pentair Water Technology leader Dr. Philip Rolchigo supports desalination technologies as pressures on sources of freshwater mount
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 13, 2008 at 6:28 amFrom Red Orbit, this press release from Pentair:
Dr. Philip Rolchigo, vice president of Water Technology for Pentair, Inc. (NYSE:PNR), co-authored a report on the viability of desalination technologies to address current United States water needs. The report, now available in hard copy from the National Academies’ National Research Council (the Council), states that desalination can boost U.S. water supplies while reducing the cost of water access overall. Dr. Rolchigo lent his expertise to the Water Science and Technology Board of the Council, and continues to lead dialogue on the need to solve this cresting dilemma.
“The technology exists for us to be able to convert seawater - 97 percent of the world’s water - into drinking water,” said Dr. Rolchigo. “As desalination technology has improved, costs associated with it have been reduced dramatically. Suddenly the option to convert sea- and ground-water for use by municipalities is a viable way to augment our water supply,” Rolchigo added.
The report recommends that desalination strategy, policy creation and research and development be overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate individual agencies currently working on independent goals. The report, “Desalination: A National Perspective,” was released by the National Research Council, the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Copies of “Desalination: A National Perspective” are available from the National Academies Press by calling 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242, or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.
Desalination Report available online
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 1, 2008 at 6:45 amFrom the Water Wired blog, the National Acadamies Press is now offering a comprehensive report on desalination, which you can read for free online. From the press release:
Recent advances in technology have made removing salt from seawater and groundwater a realistic option for increasing water supplies in some parts of the U.S., and desalination will likely have a niche in meeting the nation’s future water needs, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, a coordinated research effort with steady funding is required to better understand and minimize desalination’s environmental impacts — and find ways to further lower its costs and energy use.
“Uncertainties about desalination’s environmental impacts are currently a significant barrier to its wider use, and research on these effects — and ways to lessen them — should be the top priority,” said Amy K. Zander, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor at Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y. “Finding ways to lower costs should also be an objective. A coordinated research effort dedicated to these goals could make desalination a more practical option for some communities facing water shortages.”
The report says environmental research should be the highest priority, and that more research & development is needed to reduce energy use and the associated costs. Read the rest of the press release by clicking here. Read the report online free by clicking here. Read Water Wired’s thoughts on it by clicking here.
Arizona mulls new water source: Ocean; Mexican city considers desalination plant; U.S. partnership a possibility
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 31, 2008 at 5:57 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
The water for Arizona’s future needs may lie off the coast of a popular Mexican resort, in the Gulf of California.
State officials are studying the idea of importing filtered ocean water from an as yet unbuilt desalination plant in Puerto Peñasco, 60 miles south of the U.S. border. The water - potentially billions of gallons a year - would help sustain urban supplies in Arizona and could someday bring relief to rural residents, who have long sought a water source to replace rapidly depleting aquifers.
A Scottsdale company already is looking at possible designs for the plant in Puerto Peñasco, where overworked groundwater wells are on the verge of running dry. Arizona water managers see an opening for the state to team up with the seaside resort on a larger plant to serve both countries.
Such a project would raise a host of political, economic and environmental issues, and it’s not clear who would pay the construction costs, which could top $250 billion.But if backers can clear those hurdles, Arizona and neighboring states could tap a plentiful supply of water largely immune to the effects of drought and climate change.
“Desalinated ocean water is the future sustainable source,” said Herb Guenther, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. “It’s only logical that eventually we’ll migrate toward it. We don’t need interim supplies now. We need a permanent supply.”
Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Desalination closer to reality in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 27, 2008 at 12:08 pmFrom Discovery News:
California is closer to hosting the largest desalination plant in the country, but not everybody thinks it’s a good idea.
Some environmental groups remain concerned about the impacts of the plant on the coastal environment, despite attempts to mitigate these concerns by Poseidon Resources of Stamford, Conn., the company that wants to build the plant. The plant would turn seawater into drinking water and provide a drought-proof water supply for about 300,000 people.
Whether or not the plant goes forward may have an impact on similar proposals around the country. There are, for example, an estimated 17 other proposed desalination plants just in California. Interest in desalination is likely to grow as pressure increases on the nation’s water supply, especially in the West.
Late last week the California State Land Commission granted the last remaining permit that Poseidon needed to go ahead with construction of the 50-million-gallon-per-day facility in Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego, which they aim to have running by 2011.
But Marco Gonzalez, an attorney representing the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit environmental group based in Encinitas that focuses on waves and beaches, said Surfrider would continue to work to block the plant’s construction by following up with lawsuits.
“We recognize that desalination is a likely part of our future water supply portfolio,” he told Discovery News. “But our concern is that its time has not yet arrived.”
Read more from Discovery News by clicking here.
Desalination plant should be first of many, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 27, 2008 at 12:06 pmFrom the North County Times, this editorial with praise for the State Lands Commission to grant Poseidon it’s last needed permit:
Water, food and energy are the challenges that await us all as we look at what kind of a world we will leave our children. And our area’s lack of water is self-evident.
Innovative ideas should be welcomed, and converting seawater to fresh drinking water should be embraced within them. Thus we trust any lawsuits will be quickly dispatched.
The lands commission’s action was the right decision at the right time.
All residents should look forward to seeing the Carlsbad facility in full operation; and we hope it is rapidly joined with other similar conversion plants.
Read the full text of this editorial from the North County Times by clicking here.
Posiedon, the biggest desalination plant in W.Hemisphere, clears the last hurdle; hopes to be online by 2011
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 23, 2008 at 8:44 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Poseidon Resources’ proposal to turn ocean water into drinking water at a Carlsbad plant cleared its final permitting hurdle Friday when the California State Lands Commission gave a green light to the project. The commission voted 3-0 in Los Angeles to allow Poseidon to co-lease the Encina Power Station’s ocean intake and outfall, which Poseidon plans to use to draw in and release water. The approval marks the culmination of a 10-year effort by Poseidon to build an ocean-water desalination plant on the grounds of the power station on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad.
Poseidon plans to desalinate 50 million gallons of sea water a day and pipe it to local cities and water districts. Nine agencies have signed up to purchase the plant’s output.
Poseidon, which obtained approval for the plant from the California Coastal Commission two weeks ago, hopes to begin construction next year and produce drinking water by 2011.
From the North County Times:
“The Pacific Ocean has been added to the state’s water supply portfolio,” said Scott Maloni, a vice president of Poseidon, which is based in Stamford, Conn.
Supporters say that is a welcome source of reliable water to the region. Opponents say the plant’s operation would cause massive damage to the adjacent Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Some also say it’s better to extend the water supply by reclaiming and purifying sewage back into drinking water.
The vote amended a lease agreement between the state and landowner Cabrillo Power to allow ocean intake and discharge pipes to be used for desalination. Cabrillo owns the Encina Power Station, the site on which the Poseidon plant is to be built. The intake and discharge pipes sit on state tidelands.
Poseidon will now begin to raise the money to build the plant, Maloni said.
From Reuters News:
Carlsbad is the first of what is expected to be a wave of approvals for desalination plants in California, where about 20 plants are in various stages of planning. “This is a historic day for the state of California,” said Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president for Poseidon Resources, the Connecticut-based company behind the Carlsbad plant.
Poseidon is also developing a plant of a similar size in Huntington Beach to the north. Carlsbad will be twice the size of the current largest U.S. plant, on Tampa Bay in Florida.
California officials have set a goal for desalinated water production by 2030 equal to about 10 times the output of the Carlsbad plant.
California Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said this week the Carlsbad approval was “essential.” “Desalination will probably never be a major portion of the water supply, but it’s going to be a critical part of a portfolio of a reliable supply,” Snow said.
Poseidon hopes to clear the last hurdle today at the State Lands Commission
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 22, 2008 at 5:25 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The California State Lands Commission will hold a hearing today on a Poseidon Resources proposal to build an ocean-water desalination plant in Carlsbad.
The commission, which has jurisdiction over state tidelands, will decide whether to allow Poseidon to co-lease the ocean intake and outfall now used by the Encina Power Station at Agua Hedionda Lagoon.
If the commission approves the lease, Poseidon will have all the permits needed to build the plant, which will turn 50 million gallons a day of ocean water into drinking water.
Read the full text of this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
Coastal Commission decision worth its salt, editorial says
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 21, 2008 at 6:02 amFrom the Desert Dispatch, this editorial:
Californians should be outraged that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared we’re in a drought. Enough fresh water to meet Southern California’s entire annual needs is allowed to wash into San Francisco Bay in a single day. Every day. Divert a day’s worth, and the drought vanishes.
California’s water wars over rights and uses have been waged for years and may be beyond resolution considering the many obstacles and competing interests. How do we mitigate environmental effects? What’s an adverse environmental effect when weighed against human needs? Why should farmers pay less per drop to nourish fruits and nuts than you pay to quench your thirst?
More governmental Band-Aids promise only to further complicate the problem, not solve it. There’s hope, however, if government gets out of the way.
Apparently seized by a fit of common sense, the California Coastal Commission has approved the nation’s largest drinking-water desalination plant, at Agua Hediona Lagoon in Carlsbad, to tap a virtually inexhaustible supply – the Pacific Ocean.
It’s still costly to convert saltwater for human consumption. But technological advances are making it more economical, and drought conditions are making it more attractive as our main sources of potable water become less reliable.
Read more of this editorial from the Desert Dispatch by clicking here.
Approval of desalination was critical, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 9, 2008 at 12:34 pmFrom the North County Times:
We applaud the California Coastal Commission’s approval Wednesday of the proposed $300 million desalination plant at the Encina Power Station in Carlsbad.
We urge the California State Lands Commission to follow Wednesday’s affirmative vote at its Aug. 22 meeting, the last step in a long approval process for Poseidon Resources Corporation’s Carlsbad Desalination Project.
If approved, construction could begin in the first half of 2009. Upon completion, this plant would supply 50 million gallons of water a day, representing 9 percent of San Diego County’s total water usage, or enough water for about 112,000 average households.
As North County moves through another dry summer, area agricultural water customers are chafing under a mandatory 30 percent reduction in water deliveries forced upon them by today’s drought conditions. For them, construction can’t begin soon enough. The longer it takes to bring this project online, the more perilous their situation becomes.
Read more of this editorial from the North County Times by clicking here.
Santa Barbara’s desalination plant to get re-re-examination
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 8, 2008 at 6:09 amFrom the Santa Barbara Independent:
It turns out the 3-to-2 council majority was not sufficient to authorize a $122,000 study of what’s required to fire up the City of Santa Barbara’s 18-year-old desalination plant. Because a four-vote majority is required for such a study, this week’s council “authorization” lacks legal authority, and the councilmembers will re-examine the issue this coming Tuesday. This past week, councilmembers Iya Falcone and Grant House were not present, so only five members of the seven-member body were on hand to vote.
Water is one of those quintessentially Southern California topics that can’t be discussed without someone getting their hackles up, and the desalination plant — built in response to the sustained drought that afflicted the South Coast in the late 1980s and early ‘90s — is no exception. Tuesday’s discussion was about whether to even study what would be required to get the plant — initially designed to provide water for the City of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Montecito — operating again in case of emergencies. Water planners argued the study would provide solid information about how much it would cost to make the desal plant — on which City Hall spent $34 million in 1991 —operational, whether new technology might reduce the energy demand, and what kinds of permits might be required and from which government agencies. They also argued such information might prove useful as Santa Barbara prepares to revamp its general plan.
Councilmember Das Williams worried that a new water supply — the original desal plant was designed to produce 7,500 acre-feet of water a year, more than half the city’s total water demand — would prove growth-inducing. He argued City Hall should spend its money studying water conservation, the long term effects of climate change, and how City Hall could further its water recycling efforts. And because desalination plants are require an inordinate amount of energy, he fretted that the operation of the plant could wipe out substantial energy conservation gains City Hall has recently made. Finally, he contended that the ratepayers of Goleta and Montecito should not get a free ride since they might benefit from the operation of an emergency water supply.
Read the rest of this article from the Santa Barbara Independent by clicking here.
Coastal Commission approves proposed desalination plant in Carlsbad
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 7, 2008 at 7:45 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
A private company’s proposal to build the nation’s largest drinking water desalination plant at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad cleared its final hurdles yesterday before the California Coastal Commission. The decision came at the conclusion of a 10½-hour hearing in Oceanside punctuated by objections from environmentalists and support from elected officials who stressed the crucial need to increase the region’s water supply.
“We must diversify our region’s water-supply portfolio,” said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “We cannot conserve our way out of the water crisis.”
San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre testified in opposition to the project, arguing that it was the wrong approach to solving the region’s water shortage. “The primary way to gain new water is through reclamation,” Aguirre said, referring to the process by which wastewater is converted back into drinking water.
A frustrated Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis urged the commission to make a speedy decision without adding new requirements “so we can get on with building the damn thing.”
From the Los Angeles Times:
The desalination plant, to be built by the Poseidon Resources Corp. of Stamford, Conn., is designed to produce up to 50 million gallons of fresh water each day, which would be 9% of San Diego County’s usage. Promoters would like to begin construction immediately and have targeted 2011 for completion.
The proposal was backed by seven local mayors but opposed by several environmental groups and San Diego City Atty. Michael Aguirre. Aguirre, at the commission’s meeting in Oceanside, sided with critics who say that the amount of fresh water that would be provided is outweighed by the damage to marine life; he suggested greater use of water reclamation.
The commission tentatively approved the project in November but with 22 conditions involving finding ways to minimize damage to fish and plants and to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the salt-water-to-fresh process. A majority of commissioners agreed, in a series of votes, that the company has satisfied the conditions.
From the North County Times:
“This was a historic decision by the Coastal Commission,” said Scott Maloni, a Poseidon vice president. “This decision moves us one step closer to building the most technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination plant in the country.”
Wednesday’s hearing mainly concerned two plans that Poseidon had submitted to meet commission staff objections to the proposal. The first plan requires Poseidon to offset extra greenhouse gas emissions caused by the energy the plant will consume. The second commits Poseidon to restore wetlands similar to those near the plant, at a location to be later determined.
The commission had given the plant conceptual approval last year, but commission scientists disagreed with Poseidon about the amount of extra greenhouse gas emissions, and asked Poseidon to restore as much as 68 acres of wetlands, up from 42.5 acres in Poseidon’s proposal.
Poseidon said it reserves the right to challenge the staff-imposed changes later, but didn’t oppose them.
After extensive discussion, the commission approved the greenhouse plan on a 10-2 vote. The wetlands plan was approved on a 11-1 vote with the wetlands restoration requirement set at 55.4 acres. In casting the lone no vote on the wetlands plan, Commissioner Sara Wan said details of the restoration plan would not be available for 24 months.
Despite the changes, opponents said the commission violated the law in approving the plant.
Regarding the greenhouse gas plan, this from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Commission staffers said the plant’s energy consumption would add about 90,000 tons of carbon per year. Poseidon intends to reduce that total by using solar energy and adding energy-recovery devices.
In addition, Poseidon argued its carbon debt should be reduced by subtracting the amount of energy Metropolitan Water Department uses to pump 56,000 acre feet of water annually, the amount the desalination plant would produce.
More from a second article in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Poseidon’s plant would employ a technology called reverse osmosis, a process in which seawater is forced by high pressure through a filtering membrane. Initially, the plant will share the seawater intake system currently used to cool the Encina Power Station, which has been operating at the lagoon since the mid-1950s.
However, Encina’s owners intend to phase out the aged power plant and build a new one that would employ air cooling technology that would not require seawater. When the switch occurs, the desalination plant will pump approximately 304 million gallons of seawater daily. A third of that, 100 million gallons daily, will be demineralized to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water.
The rest of the seawater taken from the lagoon will be used to dilute the super-saline residue before it is discharged into the ocean shoreline.
The desalination plant’s intake system will trap and kill an estimated 16 million fish larvae each day and a greater number of plankton, according to a report by commission staffers. In addition, adult fish would be killed each day, including Garibaldi, the state’s fish. None of the species affected is rare or endangered.
The project’s environmental impact report concluded that, compared to the overall abundance of marine life in the ocean, the loss from the plant’s intake system will be insignificant.
Nonetheless, Poseidon is required under the state’s Coastal Act to compensate for the loss of ocean productivity by enhancing marine habitats, including wetlands that serve as nurseries for juvenile fish.
Poseidon had offered to create 37 acres of marine habitat at a cost of approximately $2.8 million, but the commission agreed with its staff that more acreage was necessary. The commission voted to require 55.4 acres of habitat restoration, but will allow Poseidon to accomplish that in two phases. The first 37 acres must be started within two years, with the additional 18.4 acres five years later.
From the AP & San Jose Mercury News:
Pressure has been mounting to find new sources of clean water as a prolonged drought continues across the state and traditional sources of water are becoming more unreliable. More than a dozen other desalination plants are under consideration across the state, including one in Huntington Beach.
The Carlsbad project has drawn ire from some opponents who fear the plant will damage the environment and raise people’s water bills.
Mark Massara, director of Sierra Club’s coastal programs, called the desalination project “a giant step backward” for Californians. He said the ocean water that will be diverted will kill millions of fish to pad Poseidon’s profits. “It allows the privatization of public trust water supplies for public profit and will ultimately make San Diego water ratepayers slaves to the most expensive fresh water ever produced in the United States,” Massara said.
Coastal commission approves Poseidon’s desalination plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 9:22 pmFrom NBC San Diego:
A proposal to remove the salt from millions of gallons of ocean water, and use it for drinking water and irrigation in San Diego County was finalized Wednesday by the state Coastal Commission.
Hundreds packed the meeting at Oceanside City Hall where there were two principal issues on the table: how Poseidon Resources Inc. would curb greenhouse gas emissions; and how they’d make up for the marine life that could be killed in the desalination process. Officials with the company assured the commission they had solved those problems.
“We’re putting in energy-recovery devices and other technology that will lower energy consumption by about one-third,” said Scott Maloni of Poseidon Resources.
Joey Racano of the Ocean Outfall Group said desalination is simply not the answer to California’s water woes. He urged everyone to conserve water and find other sources. Racano said new technology can help, but ocean water should be protected.
Read more and watch a video from NBC San Diego by clicking here.
Poseidon’s desalination plant up for final approval today; links to webcast
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 7:27 amFrom the Associated Press via San Bernardino Sun:
Amid a prolonged statewide drought, California officials are considering whether to give final approval to a company that wants to turn salt-drenched sea water into 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.
In green-lighting the project, the California Coastal Commission, which meets on Wednesday, would go against the advice of its staff, which has long opposed the desalination plant proposed just north of San Diego. If built by Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp., the $300 million plant would be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
More than a dozen other desalination plants are under consideration across California, including one in Huntington Beach in neighboring Orange County, as pressure mounts to find alternative sources of safe drinking water.
Orange County opened the world’s largest water recycling plant last year. Meanwhile, Los Angeles leaders are considering purifying wastewater for use as drinking-water, a process derisively known as “toilet to tap.”
“In the nine months since we got preliminary approval, the governor declared a statewide drought, there’s been a water state of emergency in nine counties in Northern California and the agricultural industry in San Diego has had 30 percent of its water cut,” said Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon Resources. “Things are getting bad. There’s no silver bullet here but we’re also not going to conserve and recycle our way out of this water crisis.”
The coastal commission gave preliminary approval to the project last November, subject to a list of more than 20 conditions, including Poseidon’s plans to make the plant carbon neutral and to provide for wetlands restoration as mitigation.
Read the full text of this article from the AP & the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Update: San Bernardino Sun has pulled the article; however, here is a link to the same article from the Capital Ag Press - click here.
WATCH THE WEBCAST: Click here to visit the California Coastal Commission website. You’ll find links for the webcast with various options in the left-hand column. The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 am.
Santa Barbara Council tables decision on desalination plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 7:15 amFrom Noozhawk:
The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday tabled until next week a vote on whether to spend $122,000 on a study that would look into the logistics of rebooting the long-dormant desalination plant that can convert ocean water into drinking water.
The decision came immediately after a technical mix-up: The council, with two members absent, voted 3-2 to fund the study. However, city attorney Steve Wiley pointed out that the city charter calls for a minimum of four yes votes when the item in question calls for spending taxpayer money.
The Charles Meyer Desalination Facility, at 525 Yanonali St., was built in 1991 for $34 million — the equivalent of about $75 million in today’s dollars — after voter approval amid a local drought that lasted five years. It was constructed in less than a year, and had been in operation for just two weeks when a spell of rain finally put an end to the drought.
The proposed study would cost $122,000 and would evaluate the costs and procedures for bringing the plant back online, as well as identify the technological advancements made in desalination technology since the plant was built. City council members casting dissenting votes expressed concerns about energy usage and whether the plant would fuel more development by increasing Santa Barbara’s water supply. Read more of this story from Noozhawk by clicking here.
Poseidon’s Carlsbad desalination plant returns to the California Coastal Commission
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 4, 2008 at 6:52 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
The long-running tug of war between a developer and the California Coastal Commission staff over the state’s first large-scale ocean-water desalination plant continues this week as the two sides wrangle over environmental issues.
In November, the commission tentatively approved a proposal by Poseidon Resources Inc. to build a plant in Carlsbad to desalinate 50 million gallons of seawater a day. The approval came with 22 conditions. Poseidon returns to the commission Wednesday with a plan to satisfy those conditions. If it goes well, the company hopes to get final approval to build the plant on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon.
The most significant conditions address how to compensate for fish and small marine organisms that will be killed in the desalination process, and how to neutralize carbon emissions that will result from plant operations.
The Coastal Commission staff wants Poseidon to abide by the greenhouse gas emissions standards set by legislation in 2006, and recommends Poseidon offset 100% of its emissions, but Poseidon officials say that is too stringent:
Company officials say they should not be required to offset 100 percent of the plant’s emissions, because the desalinated water would replace water now being imported from Northern California that consumes huge amounts of electricity along the way. They say Poseidon should be responsible only for the energy the desalination plant requires above the amount of electricity used to transfer water from Northern to Southern California.
“It’s a big deal for us,” said Peter MacLaggan, Poseidon’s senior vice president. “It represents a five-to tenfold increase in our costs of implementing this condition. . . . It could drive up the cost to the point where it could make it difficult for us to finance the project.”
MacLaggan said Carlsbad plans to replace its entire water supply with desalinated water and will not buy water imported from Northern California. He said Carlsbad residents shouldn’t have to pay greenhouse gas offsets twice – once for the desalination plant and once for water they are no longer taking from the State Water Project.
The commission’s staff differs with Poseidon over whether water from the desalination plant would replace imported water. Commission scientist Tom Luster said documents from the Metropolitan Water District – the region’s wholesale water provider – say that if some local agencies use desalinated water, Metropolitan either could import less water or redirect it to other customers.
In other words, Luster said, someone else could get the imported water. “It doesn’t appear to us that you’re necessarily going to result in reduced water imports and thereby reduce emissions,” Luster said.
MacLaggan said even if that is so, it’s beyond the control of Poseidon and its customers. Moreover, Poseidon officials say the greenhouse gas law doesn’t apply to their operation.
“Under the Coastal Act, (coastal commissioners) don’t have the authority to require greenhouse gas mitigation,” said Scott Maloni, a Poseidon vice president.
Read the full text of this story from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
City of Santa Barbara to consider paying for study on restarting desalination plant and a water conservation ordinance
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 4, 2008 at 6:37 amFrom Noozhawk:
The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday will consider spending $122,0000 on a study to determine how to reboot the long-dormant water desalination plant that can, in times of dryness, turn ocean water into drinking water. Also on Tuesday, a water-conservation proposal that would, among other things, prohibit new residential and commercial projects from planting turf-grass on small patches, such as between the curb and sidewalk, will be discussed by the Ordinance Committee.
The water discussions come just two months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a drought for the state of California, but officials say Tuesday’s items are unrelated to his proclamation. “We here in the city of Santa Barbara do not have an emergency,” said Jim Smith, who has sat on the city’s Water Commission for nine years.
Cachuma Lake, the area’s largest reservoir, remains nearly full since heavy rains soaked Santa Barbara in January. As a result, Smith said, Santa Barbara is at least two years away from a drought.
Officials say the study of the desalination plant is part of a comprehensive effort to update the city’s General Plan, and probably would have occurred at this time even had there been no need for the governor to proclaim a drought.
“This is part of our planning process to look 20 years out,” said Bill Ferguson, water resources supervisor for the city of Santa Barbara. “We don’t need it right now.”
Read the rest of this story from Noozhawk by clicking here.
Energy Recovery Inc.’s pump uses less energy to desalinate water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 3, 2008 at 11:56 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle, a story about the San Leandro-based Energy Recovery Inc. The company has developed the PX Pressure Exchanger, a pump that dramatically reduces the amount of energy needed for desalination. The article describes how the device works:
State-of-the-art desalination plants suck in seawater and then use electricity-driven pumps to put it under pressure. This salty stream is then slammed against filters designed to let the fresh water bleed through while sequestering the high-pressure brine - a process called reverse osmosis. “It takes a lot of pressure to get the pure water to go away from the salt, and it takes a lot of energy to pressurize the water,” Stover said.
That’s where Energy Recovery comes into play. The company designed its pump to capture the pressure trapped in that left-behind brine and recycle its energy into repressurizing the next batch of virgin seawater destined to be slammed against those reverse-osmotic filters.
All that sucking and pressurizing consumes gobs of electricity, and power expenses account for one-third to one-half of the total cost of seawater desalination, according to the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Oakland that has written a 90-page report on the topic. Heather Cooley, an environmental biologist and desalination expert at the institute who has toured Energy Recovery’s San Leandro plant, said the company’s energy recycling pump looks like a winner because it helps reduce a key cost.
So far, Wall Street seems to feel the same, as shares in this new company remain strong in a weak market. In its prospectus, Energy Recovery tells potential investors that most of its sales have come from parched foreign locales like Western Australia and the oil-rich, water-poor Middle East.
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
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