A major supplier of water in Orange County is exploring potential partnerships between government and industry to develop a desalination plant that could help reduce demands on the county's vast groundwater basin.
The efforts of the Orange County Water District come as Huntington Beach is considering a private venture by Poseidon Resources to build and operate a $250-million desalination facility at the AES power plant on Pacific Coast Highway.
Last week, the City Council postponed a decision on the controversial proposal amid increasing questions about the project's economic feasibility, environmental impact and whether a public resource, the ocean, should be tapped by a totally private operation. The vote was rescheduled for Dec. 15.
If a government agency such as a water district were involved, the city would lose its ability to stop the project, which has been mired in controversy for almost two years. State law exempts government water projects from local planning and zoning authority.
Poseidon project manager Billy Owens said the company wants approval from the city. But it could join a future partnership with a water agency, he said, if that agency chose, for example, to pursue its own desalination project at the AES site.
If the city rejects Poseidon's proposal, "we could come back in one year and refile ourselves," Owens said. "If the water agencies get impatient, they could decide to do something themselves."
Orange County Water District officials have been interested in ocean desalination to reduce demands on groundwater supplies and secure alternative sources of water.
"It might fit in with Poseidon's plans, and it might not. But the time is ripe to look at whether ocean desalination makes sense in Orange County," said Denis R. Bilodeau, president of the water district's board of directors.
The agency manages the county's enormous groundwater basin, which supplies half the water needs of 2.3 million people in northern, central and coastal Orange County. Its board of directors comprises elected officials within its service area.
District officials view desalination as a way to lessen demand on the basin, preventing further saltwater intrusion.
This year, the district joined forces with the Municipal Water District of Orange County in a conceptual study of a desalination plant that could be built at the AES site in Huntington Beach. The production capacity would be 50 million gallons of fresh water a day, the same as Poseidon's plan.
