All of Calif. in severe drought for 1st time this century

[upaloopa]

34. wrong - rule of thumb CA is usually ahead of the curve

Last edited Thu May 15, 2014, 05:11 PM - Edit history (2)

We have one in Santa Barbara and probably other cities.

Santa Barbara’s Desalination Plant Is No Quick Fix for Drought Conditions


Plans for a restart would cost as much as $20 million and take two years, but officials want to be prepared if circumstances require it



Every day it doesn’t rain, the City of Santa Barbara moves forward with plans to restart its desalination facility.

It’s not as easy as flipping a switch; officials say it would cost $20 million and take two years to replace the reverse-osmosis membranes and upgrade the outdated equipment. The operations control room has computers from the plant’s test run in the early 1990s.







“It’s a time capsule,” Joshua Haggmark, the city’s interim water resources manager, told Noozhawk.

A temporary facility was proposed to deal with the crippling 1986-1991 drought. Santa Barbara went forward with the Goleta and Montecito water districts to fund the $34-million plant built by Ionics Inc.

In 1991, “Miracle March” rains that filled up local reservoirs resulted in the desalination plant being tested, but not used as a water supply. It was placed on standby and then “long-term storage mode.”

Under Santa Barbara’s long-range water plan, the sixth year of a drought would trigger consideration of bringing the plant back online. Just four months into the third dry year, however, that decision is years away.

City leaders are doing everything they can to delay — or avoid — reactivating the desalination plant, like pushing conservation and finding other water sources through private vendors or the State Water Project.




Santa Barbara’s desalination plant near the Funk Zone utilizes a reverse-osmosis design, with seawater pumped through a series of filters and semi-permeable membranes. (Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo)


Desalination is a good fallback option, Haggmark said, but once the plant is running, it would dispense the most expensive treated water in Santa Barbara.

“I want to make sure the city knows what it’s getting into,” he said.

While water from Lake Cachuma or Gibraltar Reservoir costs about $100 per acre-foot, the desalinated water would cost about $1,500 per acre-foot — and that’s not including any of the start-up capital costs. Once those expenses are added, it’s more like $3,000 per acre-foot.

An acre-foot represents 326,000 gallons, the amount of water it would take to cover an acre, 12 inches deep. To put that in perspective, Haggmark said, three average single-family homes together use an acre-foot of water in a year.

The Charles Meyer Desalination Plant at 525 E. Yanonali St. utilizes a reverse-osmosis design, which pumps seawater through filters to catch the solid matter first, after which pure saltwater is pumped at high pressure through semi-permeable membranes to separate out the drinking water.

More

http://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_desalination_plant_water_drought_20140131