Commentary: Desalination—A piece of the water shortage puzzle

Issue Date: April 8, 2009

By Eric Larson

Eric Larson

The search for solutions to California's chronic water dilemma has focused on conservation, improvements to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, solving conveyance issues and seeking new opportunities for storage. However, if those remedies were all in place today, they would merely secure water for the current needs of a state that has a population of 36 million residents and the most productive farms in the nation. It is essential that in addition to securing the historical sources of water, an extraordinary effort must be made to create new sources of water to keep our growing state prosperous.

Today, many farmers in California find they have insufficient water to produce the crops that keep their businesses thriving, their employees working and their communities alive. At the very same time, millions of the state's residents who live on the coastal plains not far from the Pacific Ocean must be served by the same over-subscribed source of water. The time has come for California's farmers to raise their voices in support of desalination as a source of new water.

Desalinated ocean water can't reach much of our state's farmland, but every gallon produced by technology is a gallon that doesn't have to be shared. Coastal communities that can become water independent will not compete with farmers for current water sources or look at farm water transfers as their next increment of supply. While most of the state's farms are away from the coast, there are many that are imbedded in the coastal urban communities and would benefit directly from this new water.

Whenever desalination is discussed, the conversation often turns to affordability. Desalination has been set aside as being too expensive and labeled a future source. Well, that time has passed. The cost of transporting water hundreds of miles to coastal cities is rising quickly and technology advancements have driven the cost of desalination down. Additionally, private investors have shown a willingness to invest in desalination, thus reducing state and local water agency bonding burdens for water development, making desalination even more attractive.

There are more good reasons why the farm community should throw its support behind desalination. Locally produced water frees up storage and conveyance space for other users while reducing the need for environmental remedies at the source of water exports. Also, since desalination is drought-proof, its users place no demand on thin supplies during prolonged dry spells. Perhaps most attractive is the fact that desalination facilities can be brought on line much faster than the massive projects that will be needed to improve storage and delivery of state and federal water. Faster, that is, if reason can be reached on the public vetting of desalination plants.

In the coastal city of Carlsbad in San Diego County, a desalination project that will take 300,000 residents off the imported water supply has been navigating the permit process for six years. Nearly all of that time investment is due to the fact that the private company proposing the plant has had to endure four separate permitting processes with state agencies. Permits serve an important function to ensure that public safety and environmental concerns are addressed. However, four sets of regulations, four environmental reviews and four serial application and hearing processes that require years each have not served the public well.

A single intense permitting process that gives all parties a chance to comment would be much more efficient. It seems foolish that while the state is investing enormous effort and resources to solve the water crisis, it is also acting as an impediment to a logical part of the solution. In addition to the permit maze, there is now a state legislative proposal that would halt the building of desalination plants along the coast like the one planned for Carlsbad.

There is no segment of California that is more in touch with the weaknesses of the state's water system than its farmers. They can attest that one of the world's largest economies cannot function on the mere hope each year that there will be significant rain and snow. The farm community is well engaged in addressing the fixes that are needed to keep water flowing from the north, east and south. It is time to become advocates for starting the flow of water from the west.

(Eric Larson is executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. He may be contacted at eric@sdfarmbureau.org.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top