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• Posted on Jan 14, 2015

  by Seaside Courier

A project that aims to provide San Diego County with 50 million gallons of water per day is expected to be in operation by year’s end.

The Carlsbad Desalination Plant, located at Encina Power Station in Carlsbad, is about 77 percent complete, Carlsbad City Council learned at its Tuesday meeting.

The seawater desalination plant was approved by the California Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission in 2008. In 2009, the project received approval from the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the City Council.

In 2012, the San Diego County Water Authority signed a 30-year agreement with Poseidon Water to provide 50 million gallons of desalinated water. The water is expected to provide 10 percent of the total drinking water in San Diego County, water for about 300,000 people and 7 percent of the potable water needs.

Billed as the largest desalination plant on the West Coast, construction began in 2012 and is estimated at a cost of $1 billion.

Project staffers showed City Council members photos of three large completed intake pumps that are already in operation as well as the pre-treatment water area of the plant.

Meanwhile, installation of a pipeline that will extend over 10 miles to San Marcos began in early 2013 and is about 50 percent complete.

Staffers said the following roads will be closed as the pipeline is being laid:

• Van Allen through the end of January;
• El Camino Real to Melrose through the end of January;
• El Fuerte from Jan. 17 to Jan. 30;
• Lower Farady from late-January to mid-February.

The project is crucial in a time when the state is facing a drought, said Keith Lewinger, who sits on the boards of the Carlsbad Municipal Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority.

“Things have gotten a little bit better but we’re not out of the woods by any means,” Lewinger said. “The rainfall in Northern California, as of today, is exactly average except it hasn’t rained up there in about a month so that pot is leveled right now. By the middle of this week or next week, if it doesn’t rain, we’re going to be behind.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the snowpack in Sierra Nevada was about 50 percent of normal as of Dec. 30. Low rainfall has left California at an “abnormally dry level,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“We’re going to be in a shortage situation and there’s going to be cutbacks,” Lewinger said.

Lewinger said water officials will begin a discussion about allocations of water but the desalination plant will mean San Diego County residents will only have to cut back by 5 to 7 percent.

In other city business, the City Council reorganized its appointments. The following appointments were confirmed by a unanimous vote:

• Councilwoman Lorraine Wood will serve as the first alternate for the San Diego Association of Governments while Councilman Michael Schumacher will represent the city;
• Wood will serve on the Shoreline Preservation Committee;
• Mayor Matt Hall will join the board of the San Diego County Water Authority; and
• Councilman Keith Blackburn will serve on the Encina Wastewater Authority.