Huge desal plant may be in works for Camp Pendleton

 It took near-drought conditions, but water -- specifically the lack of it -- is on the verge of becoming big business in Southern California as the San Diego County Water Authority prepares to spend millions to study and lay the groundwork for building a huge desalination plant on Camp Pendleton property.
The proposed plant, which would be built from the ground up on one of two sites, could provide 150 million gallons of drinking water daily to supply 336,000 homes at a possible cost of nearly $2 billion when completed.
UCAN's Executive Director Michael Shames said that if the plant is delayed until 2018 there could be "compelling arguments" for it as the price of desalination should be coming down by then.
In his report on the proposal for Voice of San Diego, Rob Davis interviewed environmental groups, such as San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation, who initially like the fact that the Pendleton facility might be able to be designed to have less impact on the marine environment than the recently approved Carlsbad Poseidon plant Carlsbad is expected to have. If that can be accomplished, it would go a long way toward streamlining the necessary approvals for the massive project and avoid delays that the developers of Poseidon faced from opponents of its environmental impact.
Bob Yamada, the Water Authority's water resources manager, promised that there would be studies of the seafloor off Camp Pendleton's coast to see what kind of intake system is possible there.
Desalination plants are also proposed for Huntington Beach and Mexico, according to Davis' report.

Contact Rob Davis at rob.davis@voiceofsandiego.org