California Opens $1 Billion Desalination Plant to Solve Its Water Crisis

By: | January 7th, 2016

California has 840 miles of coastline adjoining the world’s largest ocean. But despite a water-rich coastline, it’s a cruel irony that the state is now about to enter its fifth year of drought.

To ease the extreme drought conditions, the state is now capturing seawater to turn it into an everyday source of drinking water.

The water crisis will soon be over!

A giant water desalination plant was opened on December 14, 2015, in Carlsbad, California. The $1 billion water desalination plant has begun operation by producing 50 million gallons of drinkable water each day.

The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant would be sufficient to provide drinking water to hundreds of thousands of San Diego residents.

Desalination has an accomplished track record.

Though Israel and countries in the Middle East have long used the desalination process to meet most of their freshwater demands, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the first major desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere.

The San Diego County Water Authority developed this plant in a partnership with Poseidon Water in record time. Poseidon Water of Boston owns and operates the plant, and the San Diego County Water Authority is buying the desalinated water under a 30-year purchase agreement.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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