Next step for desal plants
Monterey Herald - August 17, 2006

Water board to weigh permits

By KEVIN HOWE

Herald Staff Writer

The next big hurdle is looming for two small desalination plants in Moss Landing.

Permits for the two pilot seawater desalination plants -- and renewal of outfall permits at Moss Landing -- will be considered at a public hearing by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board when it meets Sept. 7 in Monterey.

The board is seeking public comment on the two projects being proposed in Moss Landing by California American Water and the Pajaro-Sunny Mesa Community Services District.

Also under consideration is the Moss Landing Power Plant's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit, which Cal Am plans to use to discharge brine from its pilot plant back into the ocean.

The discharge permit has been on administrative extension since 2005, and water board staff members propose renewing it for the facility in 2007 after a federal court rules on a lawsuit over the permit filed by an environmental group, Voice of the Wetlands.

The Cal Am plant would use approximately 140,000 gallons of heated seawater per day from the Moss Landing plant's once-through cooling system. It would then discharge the remaining brine from the desalination process into the power plant's system to be returned to the bay.

The Moss Landing power plant draws its cooling water from Elkhorn Slough.

The state Lands Commission early this year adopted a resolution to phase out once-through cooling systems for coastal power plants, which makes Cal Am's reliance on the cooling system questionable, said Madeleine Clark, director of the Elkhorn Slough Coalition.

"It doesn't make sense," she said, "to invest in these old dinosaurs when they're going to be mothballed and demolished in the future."

The coalition, she said, is preparing written comments for the water board. "We think there are better options or alternatives to the outfall."

LS Power Co., owner of the Moss Landing plant, has no problem allowing the pilot desalination plant projects, said company spokesman David Hicks. But it also has no interest in whether the permits are granted.

"Our view is that, if the community is interested, we would provide a venue for pilot projects," he said, adding, "We're not in the water business."

Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie said the company expects to get its permit for the pilot plant. She added that no contractor to build it has yet been selected.

Pajaro-Sunny Mesa's contractor, Poseidon Resources Corp. of San Diego, has proposed using the near-shore intake and outfall structures next to the power plant once used by Kaiser Refractories at the mouth of Moss Landing Harbor and Elkhorn Slough. That proposal also will be looked at by the water board, said Peter von Langen, environmental scientist with the board.

Pajaro-Sunny Mesa's pilot project consists of two desalination plants on modular mounts to be located in a 4,000-square-foot temporary facility at Highway 1 and Dolan Road in the 200-acre Moss Landing Commercial Park.

The plants are meant to collect data and let potential customers sample the water.

Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president of Poseidon, said the two pilot plants together would produce 40,000 gallons of fresh water per day, amounting to 44.8 acre-feet of water per year, enough to accommodate approximately 179 households per year.

Water for the pilot plant would be provided by seven pumps that once served Kaiser Refractories when seawater was used to make bricks in Moss Landing.

Poseidon ultimately envisions a full-scale desalination plant on the site that would produce 20 million gallons per day, MacLaggan said, or 2,240 acre-feet per year, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

On Wednesday, the Regional Water Quality Control board in San Diego voted unanimously to issue a five-year discharge permit for Poseidon's 50 million-gallon-per-day desalination plant in Carlsbad, MacLaggan said.

The water board's approval clears the way for Poseidon to apply to the California Coastal Commission for a coastal development permit.

The Sept. 7 meeting in Monterey begins at 3 p.m. in the Monterey City Council Chambers, 598 Pacific St.

Von Langen of the water board met Wednesday with area agencies involved in desalination projects at the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments office in Marina. The agencies, he said, are discussing the best approach to desalination projects for Monterey Bay: whether to build a single large regional plant or several smaller plants.

The group will prepare a report for a conference in Monterey on Sept. 27.

montereyherald.com.