Water solution

“Water solution”, Carmel Pine Cone – July 30, 2021

California, the one-time Golden State, is suffering from any number of critical issues, but none more pressing than water for the 40 million people who live here. California is the country’s bread basket; agriculture generates over $50 billion in yearly revenues. Farmers and ranchers need a stable, predictable water supply. Unfortunately, they are now cursed with a drought of epic proportions. Lake Oroville will reach historic lows in late August. Lake Mead is already at new lows, threatening Southern California with water rationing. Forty-one of 58 counties are declared disaster zones.

The state has two water storage resources, dams and reservoirs for its surface water, and subsurface aquifers. During this drought we are close to exhausting surface
waters and are imperiling aquifers.

Over-pumping aquifers has caused subsidence in many parts of the state. Ultimately, despite opposition from uncompromising environmentalists, California must develop new sustainable water sources. Open-ocean desalination has the greatest potential to provide thousands of acre feet of renewable, stable, guaranteed, potable new water. Israel presently supplies 40 percent of its water usage from open-sea desalinated water. California can do the same.

A company called Poseidon Resources is producing 50 million gallons per day at its Carlsbad desal plant. This provides 10 percent of San Diego County’s drinking water … 50 billion gallons to date. If California would defy environmentalists and build a dozen or more Carlsbad-sized plants up and down the coast, they would deliver in excess of 6.7 million acre-feet of potable water. That drinking water saved for public consumption would help agriculture as well. California’s future depends on desalination.

–Roland Martin, Carmel Valley