California Gives Desalination Plants a Fresh Look Process to Make Seawater Drinkable Gains Traction, but Environmentalists Object to Heavy Energy Use,

WATER: Desalination plants springing in California (Thursday, July 9, 2009)

Encouraged by prolonged drought, the Southern California town of Carlsbad will begin construction early next year on the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, turning 50 million gallons of seawater into fresh water each day.

The long-delayed $320 million project won approval in May. Drawing on seawater flowing downhill, the plant will provide enough water for 300,000 people.

Government officials had opposed the plant, which is being developed by Poseidon Resources, for its high energy consumption. Drought changed that, according to Claude Lewis, Carlsbad's mayor.

"Water is going to be very short until you have a new source," Lewis said. "And the only new source is desalination, I don't care what anybody says."

California gets one-half of its drinking water from two sources: the Sacramento River Delta in the north and the Colorado River in the south. Dwindling supplies have prompted water authorities to push for water recycling, conservation and restrictions -- and, increasingly, desalination.

Two more plants are in the works. The first, in Huntington Beach, will also begin construction next year. And just north of Carlsbad, in Camp Pendleton, plans are in the works to build a plant that will cost up to $1.9 billion (Sabrina Shankman, Wall Street Journal, July 9). -- PV

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124708765072714061.html