COSTA MESA — For nearly a century, Southern Californians have outwitted the climate, going to extraordinary lengths to quench their enormous thirst. They have punched holes through mountains, carved channels in the desert floor, drained distant rivers and lakes and lifted water up steep passes.
Yet after all these Herculean efforts, perhaps the simplest and only drought-proof option for overcoming the chronic water shortage lies right at our doorstep, in the vast, salty Pacific. In a relentless hunt for new sources of drinking water, communities from Monterey to San Diego are casting an eye toward ocean waters.
The giant Metropolitan Water District hopes to construct one of the world's largest seawater desalination plants--producing 80 million gallons of fresh water daily--somewhere on the Southern California shoreline by 1997. At least seven others are proposed along the southern and central coast, including Huntington Beach, Ventura and San Diego Bay, while three began operating the past year in Santa Barbara, Morro Bay and on Santa Catalina Island.
But the flurry of proposals has triggered worries that the long-term ecological effects of transforming seawater to tap water are poorly understood, and that the push to find new sources might result in ill-conceived projects.
Marine researchers and state authorities are warning that serious questions about the impacts of these surf-to-sink operations remain unanswered, from their repercussions on fish to their contribution to smog.
Each day, a desalting plant pumps millions of gallons of brine--a dense, super-salty solution--into the ocean or its bays, where it might harm creatures that are vital links in the sea's chain of life.
"Disposal of brine is a new concept, and it is the area with the most potential for problems," said John Largier, an assistant research oceanographer with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. "There are things that would have to be watched, subtle things you wouldn't readily notice."
Ocean creatures--which are ultra-sensitive to slight changes in salinity, light, temperature, oxygen and turbidity--could be poisoned or smothered if the heavy brine settles on the bottom. When pumped into sheltered waters, large amounts of brine might overpower a bay or estuary with salt, or alter currents, which in turn would reshape the ecosystem. Also, drawing in millions of gallons of seawater would trap fish and their eggs.
