$1 Mil State Grant for Desalination Test Well
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
California American Water's Desalination Test Well Project Has Been Selected to Receive a $1- Million Proposition 50 Grant by the California Department of Water Resources
The grant will help pay for the installation of an approximately $4-million slant test well, which is intended to prove the viability of beach wells as feed-water for the company's Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project. One million dollars is the maximum award for which the test well project was eligible.
Proposition 50, the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water and Coastal and Beach Protection Act, is a $3.4 billion bond passed by voters in 2002, which allocates $50 million in grants for brackish water and ocean water desalination projects throughout the state.
"This award provides a direct financial benefit to our customers," said California American Water President Robert MacLean. "The test well project is not only important for the future of the Monterey Peninsula's water supply; it also tests technology which is critical to the future of desalination as an alternative water source for our state."
The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project is a multi-sourced approach to solving the Monterey Peninsula's perennial water shortage and reducing pumping from the Carmel River. The largest component of the project is a desalination plant that would draw seawater from slant wells that are buried in the sand and which extend beneath the ocean floor.
Slant wells, also called "subsurface intakes," are the preferred technology of California permitting agencies including the State Water Resources Control Board and the California Coastal Commission. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently issued guidelines for desalination projects within the sanctuary and directed any project proponent to pursue subsurface intakes where feasible.
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