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Desalination Plant Draws a Little Closer to Reality

Conceptual plans for building a multimillion-dollar seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad are moving ahead following the release of a San Diego County Water Authority environmental report.

The environmental studies begun in 2003 review possible effects of the proposed $300 million desalination plant and a $190 million water conveyance system. The project would be built beside the Encina Power Station north of Cannon Road and west of Interstate 5.

Cabrillo Power 1, LLC of San Diego owns the Encina Power Station, and Stamford, Conn.-based Poseidon Resources Corp. holds a lease at Encina to develop a privately owned seawater desalination plant.

Poseidon Resources will fund the project through the capital markets and will contribute equity to the project, according to the company, which has offices in San Diego and Long Beach. Private investors will assume the majority of the risks associated with the project, including permitting, designing, building and operating the facility.

The Water Authority’s board of directors will decide whether to approve the desalination project after allowing time for public review of the draft environmental impact , which was released April 3 , through May 18.

Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce President Ted Owen said the city’s businesses and residents are in favor of the desalination plant because it will provide them with a steady supply of drinkable water that won’t be affected by droughts or shortage of imported supplies.

Owen said Carlsbad requires an average of 25 million gallons a day of water, but the desalination plant could produce 50 million gallons of water daily. Owen said Carlsbad will have access to the water first, which guarantees the city will have adequate supplies of water.

“The other 50 percent they don’t need goes into the general system,” he said.

Carlsbad’s hotels and golf courses that use large amounts of water are particularly supportive, as are the 60 biotech firms in Carlsbad that depend on large volumes of pure water for their research.

“The city is very comfortable with it,” Owen said of the desalination project. “It’s a privately funded process. The city will not be putting money into it.”


Being Responsible

Ken Weinberg, director of water resources for the Water Authority, said the board wants to be “environmentally responsible” by studying the project’s effect on marine biology as well as the effects of construction. The EIR also looked at aesthetics, terrestrial biology and traffic.

Laurence Purcell, water resources manager for the Water Authority, said air quality and noise are the two areas that could have the most severe impacts, but they would be temporary during construction. Traffic flow should not be interrupted to businesses during the construction phase, from early 2007 through early 2009, Purcell said.

“I don’t envision anybody being cut off during construction,” Purcell said. “Might it be inconvenient at times, yes, but we’re not going to shut anyone down.”

The project includes a seawater desalination facility capable of processing 50 million gallons of seawater a day, a pump station and a pipeline to convey the desalinated water to the Water Authority’s second aqueduct in San Marcos.

Three possible routes are being considered for the pipeline, with the preferred route mapped from the desalination plant near Cannon Road and traveling east across College Boulevard, Faraday Avenue, Sycamore Avenue and La Mirada Road.

Purcell said the pipeline route crosses some native habitat, but the site would be restored after construction ends.


Bringing Water To The Masses

The Water Authority is working with the city of Carlsbad to develop the regional seawater desalination plant to supply water to more than 100,000 households in the region.

Weinberg said the Water Authority had considered desalination as an option for providing water to its customers since the early 1990s when the county experienced a severe water shortage caused by a drought. The seawater conversion process was considered too expensive at $2,000 per acre-foot of water in the mid-1990s. But Seawater Desalination Program Manager Robert Yamada said improvements to the technology, such as the reverse osmosis process, have brought costs down to $850 to $900 per acre-foot. Reverse osmosis is a procedure that forces water through a membrane to remove the salt.

The Water Authority pays the Metropolitan Water District $453 per acre-foot for a blend of imported water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project, according to John Liarakos, media relations officer for the San Diego County Water Authority.

Poseidon Resources was interested in developing its own desalination project locally in 2000, when it approached the city of Carlsbad with project ideas. Poseidon completed its own desalination study in 2001.

“We had done a study at the same location,” said Purcell, of the Water Authority. “Poseidon approached us and other water agencies to cooperate with their privately run plant.”

Purcell said negotiations are progressing with Poseidon and Cabrillo Power 1, and Water Authority officials will meet with their representatives next week.

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