Carlsbad Wants to Prove Desalination is Worthwhile in California

The largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere is under construction in Carlsbad, California.

Not everybody is happy about it, but Poseidon Water, the company building the plant and for desalination across the globe, the opening of the plant later this year is an opportunity to try and disprove the criticism that follows such projects.

The technology has been developed and upgraded by experts from an Israeli company and they will help run the plant.

Water Online reports:

“Desalination is controversial in California. Environmentalists are wary of the notion that it is a panacea for drought. A host of environmental groups said in a statement that “seawater desalination should only be pursued with caution and only after conservation, stormwater capture through the use of ‘green infrastructure,’ water use efficiency, and wastewater recycling have all been fully implemented,” according to a blog post by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Carlsbad project could set the tone for the future of desalination in California.

“Carlsbad is going to change the way we see water in California for decades,” said Peter MacLaggan, a Poseidon Water vice president, per the report. “It’s not a silver bullet to solve all our water problems, but it’s going to be another tool in the toolbox.”

It remains to be seen whether this plant will disprove the negative stereotypes surrounding it, but whether or not that happens, it will help California through the drought in one way or another.

Inframanage.com notes that, as with all infrastructure asset management acquisitions, it is the whole of life cost of the asset that is important to consider.

The whole of life cost analysis should also include the unit cost of production and the comparison of this cost of production with alternatives.

This type of analysis can be instructive when comparing projects and alternative approaches, as it requires a good understanding of the management and projected expenditure associated with operating, maintaining, and renewing/replacing the asset,  The cycles of each of these activities also need to be known.

The results of the whole of life asset cost analysis will inform community debates about the best solutions, and enable effective asset lifecycle management planning.

PHOTO CREDIT: “Carlsbad desalination plant3” by Bovlb – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.