Should Desalination Play a Bigger Role in California’s Water Future?

When it comes to finding new sources of drinking water for residents of a coastal state mired in drought, some say desalination gets little respect in Sacramento

“Desalination should be a priority,” said Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar, who introduced a bill last week that would write first-time goals into the state water code for a percentage of drinking water originating from the ocean.

Chang, who once served on the Walnut Valley Water District board, said she was inspired by Singapore and Australia, which fought their way out of extreme droughts in part by building desalination plants. Following operation last year of the $1 billion Carlsbad desalination plant in San Diego County, the Huntington Beach community is in the final stages of building a 50 million-gallon-per- day plant that may open by 2019, according to the website for Poseidon Water, project developer for both plants.

During the 15 years it took to plan the Huntington Beach plant, Australia put six desalination facilities into operation, Chang said. The inland Republican, who is running for the state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, believes the state does not place enough emphasis on desalination as a partial solution to dwindling water supplies caused by nearly five years of drought and shifting weather patterns.

“Desalination in itself is drought-proof,” she said. “You have an existing water source.”

Assembly Bill 1925 would urge the state Department of Water Resources “to find economic and efficient methods of desalting saline water so that desalted water may be made available to help meet the growing water requirement of the state,” according to the bill.

While Chang has left blank specific amounts, she’s looking to establish goals for state urban water agencies by 2025 and 2030 and hopes to fill in the blanks before the final vote in August. Her bill is patterned after a 1997 law that placed goals in the state water code for recycled water — potable water taken from sewage treatment plants and, after advanced treatment, used for irrigating ballfields and cemeteries or injected into underground aquifers for storage.

Chang may get support from her colleagues across the aisle. In December, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said they supported the Huntington Beach desalination project.

NO DESALINATION TARGETS

“Currently there are no statewide goals or targets for desalination in state law or policy documents,” said Richard Mills, DWR department manager for the water recycling and desalination section.

However, goals for recycled water are part of the California Water Code, he explained.

In 1991, the statewide goal was to recycle 700,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2000 and 1 million acre-feet per year by 2010. (An acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons or 43,560 cubic feet, the amount used by a family of five in Southern California for a year.)

But having a goal doesn’t mean it gets done. Mills said the department looks at goals for recycled water as “an end toward which effort is directed with the implication that attainment may require extraordinary effort or struggle,” he said. “A goal is an end to strive for and may not be an expectation.”

In fact, the 2000 and 2010 goals were missed, Mills said. A survey of municipal wastewater being used in a beneficial way revealed 669,000 acre-feet in 2009.

In 2010, the department re-established goals for recycled water, with 2020 targets for 1 million acre-feet and 1.3 million in 2030. In addition, the State Water Resources Control Board, the agency leading the mandatory water conservation effort in the state, passed a resolution with similar goals for recycled water.

The state set aside $750 million from Proposition 1 adopted by voters in 2014. Of that, water recycling will get $625 million and desalination $100 million, Mills said.

Chang said her bill will not require more desalination per se nor will it target state bond money for building new desalting plants. It’s more of a strong recommendation.

“Hopefully it will be a catalyst for sound policy,” she said.

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Taxonomy

• Desalination
• Water Management