California to combat drought by reactivating desalination plants

#CaliforniaDrought #desalination #SanFranciscoBay #MiracleMarch California's drought is entering its fourth year with no end in sight which has prompted calls for conservation of water and seek a way out to beat this crisis. When it had faced a similar situation in the 1990s, Santa Barbara had spent $34 million on a desalination plant. But, once rains returned, the desalination plant became a white elephant and proved too costly to keep running. A situation has now arrived when the plant needs to be activated, it would make no sense to keep it idle any longer as reported in this link
As Joshua Haggmark, water resources manager for the city 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, has cautioned, such a situation would harm businesses because if a business does not have access to the water it needs to do whatever it needs to do, they will obviously shift base and leave.

In order to address the growing concerns, ideas are floating around to go in for desalination projects which cab provide drought-proof hydration solutions. At least 14 coastal areas are weighing these options in addition to Santa Barbara and San Diego.
County supervisors in Santa Clara County which is the most populous in the San Francisco Bay Area, have already renewed discussion on the technology and, Poseidon Water, the company that was behind San Diego's plant, is putting this forth as a cost-effective and reliable solution.
Reverse-osmosis desalination is considered to be the most popular method and it pushes seawater through filtration membranes to remove salt and other impurities.
Santa Barbara first went in for desalination during the six-year drought that began in 1986. However, following abundant rainfall in March 1991 known as ‘Miracle March’, the city sold off its equipment that included reverse-osmosis membranes and pumps to Saudi Arabia. The remaining facility was put into long-term standby mode and have been gathering dust and cobwebs.

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