California turns to Dana Point desalination plant as drought worsens

The California Coastal Commission approved a $140 million desalination plant in Dana Point last month, following decades of debate regarding the controversial $1.4 billion Huntington Beach plant that ultimately ended in the commission rejecting the overall project. WikiCommons

With decades of drought in California, the question of bringing more water supplies into the state's system has been raised. As of November 2022, California has already constructed 12 desalination plants along the coast in an effort to fix water shortages and remove restrictions. 

The California Coastal Commission approved the Doheny Ocean Desalination project in Dana Point unanimously last month after the plant was able to showcase careful consideration and improvement on many controversial factors, such as environmental harm, within these facilities. The project is currently accepting bids.

"The Doheny Project proposed subsurface intakes, thus drastically reducing impact to marine organisms... address sea level rise (and) maximize renewable energy sources resulting in a project that is net carbon-neutral,” Senior Deputy Director of the Coastal Commission Kate Huckelbridge said while presenting the project at a Oct. 13 Coastal Commission meeting. “And finally, the project was vetted through a robust public process, including a public discussion of alternatives."

Desalination plants are crucial in order to use the resources of the ocean that hold 96.5% of the world's water. These plants are able to filter out impurities and salt from the water and convert it to freshwater. This is done by means of reverse osmosis. 

These plants have been showing up in California for decades. There are currently 12 plants located in Moss Landing, Marina Coast, Sand City, Monterey Bay, Diablo Canyon, Gaviota, Pebbly Beach, Santa Barbara, San Nicolas Island, Carlsbad and Morro Bay, which has two facilities. 

Historically, California has retained its water supplies through natural means, Chapman University environmental science and engineering professor Thomas Piechota said.

"We get a lot of our water from the Colorado River Basin and Northern California, but the amount of water has been declining due to climate change, along with an increasing population in the west," Piechota said. 

As snowfall has continued to decrease in the past few years, less runoff reaches California, resulting in the water needing to be transported to the state. Other alternatives have also been implemented to combat this issue, one of which is desalination plants. 

These plants in the past were considered to be unreasonable due to their extremely high cost and extensive power usage. The technologies for these facilities were also sparse. However, the issues regarding plant expenses began to decline as their importance and relevance to California grew. 

"Due to the desalination plants becoming more viable, we are seeing more being built,” Piechota said. “Even though this water is more expensive now, with increasing competition for water from natural sources, desalination will become more affordable.”

The approval of a smaller-scale plant in Dana Point follows decades of debate, protests and conflict over the Huntington Beach desalination project brought forward by Poseidon Water, a seawater desalination company. This facility would have cost an estimated $1.4 billion and was supposed to have collected 20 times more water than the Doheny Project, pumping in 100 million gallons of water daily, compared to only five million at the new plant. 

After the Huntington Beach project was announced back in 1998, protests arose — mainly from nearby tribal nations — about the impact the project would have on marine life. These concerns primarily targeted how this plant would be drawing lots of water from the ocean. 

"Because the site in Huntington Beach didn't have the correct soil for a subsurface intake, which is drawing water from underground, they could only pump water directly from the ocean, which can cause harm to the ocean environment," Piechota said. 

Anthony Morales, tribal chairperson of the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel, said at the meeting that he was against this project and has voiced his concerns for many other desalination plants as well. Regarding the Huntington Beach facility in particular, Morales explained that the project would destroy the tribe's ancestral land, harm marine life and impact many residents economically.

"This project will result in an increase in the cost of water locally, putting low-income residents at risk. Shamelessly, this corporation also expects the public to help pay for this for-profit enterprise,” Morales wrote in a May 6 report to the Coastal Commission. “Our tribal territory must not be pillaged by corporations who seek to exploit the human right to water for their own bottom line.”

After the Huntington Beach project was rejected on May 12, it reshaped the standards and practices for future desalination plants, as seen in the recently approved Doheny Project. However, there are still other measures that should be taken to address depleting water supplies in the state. 

"The desalination plants will help the water supply, but it is still very important to keep conserving water and looking into where we use water unnecessarily, which most commonly is landscapes and grass,” Piechota said. “This water evaporates and isn't recycled, compared to water used inside homes and facilities. But in the end, we can't conserve our way out of this, which is why these plants are crucial along with conservation.”