Desalination Plant Study

Funding a study to determine how much it would cost to bring the Charles Meyer Desalination Plant online is currently under discussion at city hall. Below, please find some excerpts of what is being written about this issue:



(Image courtesy of http://www.sbwater.org/WaterSupply.htm


David Pritchett on the subject, at Edhat:
David Pritchett: Desalination Study

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[ From "Leaders table talks over desalination plant study," by Eric Lindberg, DAILY SOUND, 5 August 2008 - full text at:
DAILY SOUND: Desalination ]


After discussing the merits of studying what it would take to get the city’s desalination plant up and running again, Santa Barbara city leaders were forced to table the matter until next week due to a lack of a sufficient majority.

While Mayor Marty Blum joined Councilmembers Roger Horton and Dale Francisco to vote in favor of going forward with the $122,000 study, their three ayes fell short of the four-vote majority needed.

Councilmembers Helene Schneider and Das Williams voted against the proposal to examine rehabilitating the facility, which converts seawater into drinking water, while Councilmembers Iya Falcone and Grant House were absent...

Calling the study premature, Williams said a larger focus should be placed on conservation and recycled water programs.

“Desal has huge problems, not the least of which being its cost and not the least of which being its energy usage,” he said...

Built in the early 90’s as a response to the severe drought of the late 80s, the Charles Meyer Desalination Facility has been relegated to storage mode for the past 10 years.

... Williams said the city shouldn’t even look at the desalination plant until a drought is on the horizon.

“We have many emergency backup supplies,” he said. “We have groundwater, we have Gibraltar, we have Cachuma.”

He also expressed concerns about the potential increase in growth should the city augment its current water supply with an additional 3,125 acre-feet per year, the output capacity of the desalination facility...

Since the item involves an allocation of city funds, the council needed at least four votes in favor to approve the study, causing the 3-2 vote to fail. Ultimately the council voted 4-1 to continue the matter until next week, with Williams dissenting.

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[ From "Santa Barbara Council Tables Decision on Desalination Plant," by Rob Kuznia, NOOZHAWK, 6 August 2008 - full text at:
NOOZHAWK: Desalination ]


... The Charles Meyer Desalination Facility, at 525 Yanonali St., was built in 1991 for $34 million — the equivalent of about $75 million in today’s dollars — after voter approval amid a local drought that lasted five years. It was constructed in less than a year, and had been in operation for just two weeks when a spell of rain finally put an end to the drought...

Speaking to the council on Tuesday, city Water Resources Supervisor Bill Ferguson said there are no plans to reactivate the desalination plant, but added that a study would look at what would need to be done if circumstances called for bringing it back online.

Specifically, the proposed study is broken down into two portions. A $74,000 phase-one study would assess the condition of the plant and investigate how much it would cost to fire it back up. A $48,000 phase two would be a more general study of the technological changes that desalination plants have undergone in recent years.

The debate on Tuesday centered on several issues. Most skeptical of the proposal was Councilman Das Williams, who, along with Helene Schneider, voted against bankrolling the entire study.

Williams said the study is premature, and cited as one of his concerns the large amount of energy required to operate a desalination plant.

“All of the efforts we have made in the last six years to reduce energy use could be wiped out overnight by getting that desalination plant online,” he said.

Instead, he advocated studying additional conservation and water recycling methods first, then possibly coming back to the desalination examination.

Williams also expressed concern that the plant might one day be used to accommodate the expansion of development. Williams said that although the stated intention has been to provide a backup supply of water in case of emergency, he has heard staff members toss around words such as “base-loading,” which is a technical term for increasing the total supply of water, ostensibly to accommodate a growing population.

Lastly, Williams argued that Santa Barbara already enjoys a healthy emergency reserve, noting that, in addition to Cachuma, the city receives water from the State Water Project, the Gibraltar Reservoir on the Santa Ynez River, groundwater and recycled water. Many of the surrounding agencies, he said, don’t have the same backup supplies.

“If we’re creating yet another backup source,” he said, “what we are really doing is creating a backup for somebody else, and the ratepayers for our agency in Santa Barbara end up paying for the cost, and I have a problem with that.”

... After it was discovered that the 3-2 vote wasn’t enough for approval, Williams suggested that the council consider Schneider’s idea: funding just the $74,000 portion of the study. Instead, the council voted 4-1 — with Williams again voting no — to postpone the item until next week...