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No Single Path
Tapping the seas for drinking water is hardly a new idea. Saudi Arabia has done it for decades. In a desert nation rich in energy sources, the cost/benefit ratios are different from those in California. Most of the significant seawater desalting capacity is in the Persian Gulf, on islands with little local water, (including Catalina Island), and in some other locations "where water options are limited and the public is willing to pay high prices," states the Pacific Institute's report on desalination. However, "while seawater desalination plants are already vital for economic development in many arid and water-short areas of the world, many plants are overly expensive, inaccurately promoted, poorly designed, inappropriately sited, and ultimately useless."

The debate about desalination has engaged public agencies, private interests, fishermen, farmers, utilities, planners, and many others. Zeke Grader, president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, said he's ready to give "conditional approval" to desalination, but only if the things that trouble him can be resolved. It would be hypocritical for his organization to advocate the removal of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River while supporting new high-energy water projects, he said. He hopes to see desalination become an energy-saving technology, one that reduces the need to pump northern river water south.

Meanwhile, the Surfrider Foundation is working with the West Basin Municipal Water District and other utilities on an Ocean Friendly Garden program for residential and large landscapes. By reducing runoff, the program should reduce water use, stream and ocean degradation, and the associated costs of controlling intractable nonpoint source pollution. San Diego County, which originally was a partner in the Poseidon project for Carlsbad, has stepped back after its water conservation efforts proved so successful that projections for water requirements were scaled down. Reuse and groundwater recharge are progressing in Orange County.

"Our vision should be absolutely no discharge into the ocean," said Geever. "We should be reclaiming every drop of water and finding a productive use for it." Small, public desalination plants can have a place in that vision. How the story evolves, however, will depend in no small part on the attention it gets from California citizens.

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