Post by anenro on Oct 2, 2015 18:34:33 GMT 4
SACRAMENTO — Recently approved environmental rules could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of desalination plants proposed along California’s coast. Industry officials say projects will continue to move forward — though it’s an open question about whether the technology will ever flourish in the Golden State.
The high financial cost of turning seawater into drinking water has slowed the spread of desalination for decades.
The new rules add costs, but they also offer a road map, albeit an expensive one, for the industry to follow, several representatives said.
“We think they provide a path moving forward for ocean desalination in California,” said Ron Davis, executive director of Cal Desal, an industry group.
The State Water Resources Control Board in early May approved the rules, which are considered the world’s most rigorous for protecting marine life from the harmful effects posed by desalination facilities. More than a dozen desalination plants are proposed along the California coast, from San Francisco to Carlsbad.
The purpose of the rules is to minimize the loss of sea life when the plants suck in ocean water for treatment. They also cover the impacts of brine, the salty byproduct of desalination which is sent back into the sea.
New seawater desalination rules, at a glance:
Clarifies the State Water Resources Control Board’s authority over desalination facility intakes and discharges
Establishes sub-surface water intake as preferred intake system
Implements salinity limits on brine discharges from desalination plants
Requires monitoring and reporting on brine discharges from desalination plants and their impact on bottom-dwelling ocean organisms
Source: State Water Resources Control Board
While the rules are viewed as strict in some quarters, environmentalists say they don’t go far enough and include exemptions that could ease the path for desalination plants.
Critics consider the technology a “last resort” for California’s water supply, given its high financial and energy costs.
Even so, with California’s drought stretching on, industry and water officials have paid greater attention to the possibility that desalination could one day become a substantial water supply for the state.
Some predict high costs will continue to hold back the industry.
“People have been touting desal as the solution to water scarcity since the ‘60s,” said Ellen Hanak, director of the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California. “The technology, yeah, has made advances. But ocean water desalination is still a relatively expensive supply of water.… For us (in California), I think it’s still a marginal source.”
At about $2,000 per acre foot, desalinated water costs roughly twice as much as importing water or recycling wastewater. An acre foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough for two average single-family households.
Impact on Carlsbad plant
The new rules will eventually apply to the Carlsbad Desalination Project, which is considered the largest such facility in the Western Hemisphere and a test case for the technology’s future in California.
It’s expected to come online in November and supply 7 percent of the San Diego region’s water by 2020.
The $1 billion project started construction in 2012 after a long and contentious state permitting process. A required permit renewal and planned upgrades will trigger its compliance with the rules in a few years.
“We now have clear guidance on what we need to do to comply,” said Bob Yamada, water resources manager for the San Diego County Water Authority, which signed a 30-year deal with the plant’s owner, Poseidon Water, to buy its water.
The deal allows the water authority to buy the plant after 30 years for $1.
By the end of 2017, Yamada said the Carlsbad plant will need to comply with the state’s water intake requirements — which potentially could cost hundreds of millions of dollars for some plants. To minimize the harm desalination plants pose to marine life, the state required owners to install intake pipes below the seafloor.
Applicants can receive exemptions if they demonstrate that a subsurface system is infeasible due to geologic conditions, or would make their project economically unfeasible. If it’s not possible to build pipes into the seafloor at the Carlsbad site, Yamada said the state would require the plant to upgrade its open ocean pipes to reduce the loss of plankton, fish eggs and larvae, all of which is killed during the intake process.
“I think there’s a financial impact even if it turns out you can’t do subsurface,” said Randy Truby, a San Diego resident and past president of the International Desalination Association, citing the detailed studies and upgrades owners will need to pay for. “You are going to pay more no matter what.”
Uncertain future
Ocean desalination is considered the most expensive and energy intensive way to create new water supplies in California. For those reasons, and for its impact on the environment, critics say it should receive more scrutiny.
Some communities in Northern California have backed away in recent years from plans for desalination plants, citing high costs or environmental opposition.
Wracked by a decade-long drought in the early 2000s, Australia built numerous desalination plants, then shut several down once the rains returned, finding it cheaper to obtain other water supplies.
“California needs more debate on this,” said Sara Aminzadeh, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. “I just don’t think desal, in most cases, is a good option.”
Industry officials say desalination plants won’t appear overnight in California. And proponents of new plants will need time to study whether and where they can still built their projects given the new rules.
After Carlsbad, the desalination plant considered furthest along in Southern California is Poseidon’s Huntington Beach project. Truby, of the International Desalination Association, said Poseidon will likely need to crunch its numbers again to make sure its project “pencils out.”
In the San Diego region, a site along the coast of Camp Pendleton has been eyed for a desalination plant. The water authority is studying a potential plant at the site, which would come online sometime after 2030, though the region is now focused on recycled water as the next step in increasing the local water supply, Yamada said.
The impact of the new rules are just now being fully examined, several industry representatives said.
“This is all new territory,” said Truby, of the International Desalination Association. “Now, at least people know what they’re facing.”
UPDATE: This article has been corrected to describe the Camp Pendleton desalination plans as potential