By Robert H. Sulnick
As a diverse coalition of Orange County organizations supporting the development of all kinds of new local water for the county we are troubled by quotes from Surfrider Foundation regarding the opening of the Carlsbad desalination plant characterizing desalination as a technology of last resort which harms the environment and puts taxpayers at risk. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
California, including both San Diego and Orange County, is in the midst of the worst drought in history. Southern California is dependent on imported water (San Diego 80 percent, Orange County 50 percent, Los Angeles 85 percent) from two increasingly unreliable sources: the Sierra snowpack at a 500-year low of 5 percent of normal and the Colorado River at its lowest deliveries in history.
Any scientist studying ocean ecosystems will tell you that pollution, over fishing, acidification, coral reef and kelp bed destruction, habitat destruction, and climate change are extraordinary, imminent threats to ocean vitality and productivity. A desalination plant is not on that list.
Ratepayers dependent on imported water are “at risk” from climate change, drought, and disappearing imported water. Ensuring a drought-proof source of local water through desalination, as San Diego’s investment in Carlsbad does, is prudent “risk management” — especially so given that the cost of imported water has risen by more than six percent a year over the past 20 years and will predictably become more expensive as the drought continues.
NASA has predicted a “megadrought” for our region of the world that could last up to a decade. In this context, characterizing desalination as the method of last resort is nonsensical for coastal communities like San Diego and Orange County.
OC WISE — Orange County Water Independence, Sustainability & Efficiency — enthusiastically supports conservation and wastewater recycling as necessary parts of a balanced water portfolio. However, these by themselves can neither make up for the loss of imported water or keep up with projected population growth. Those of us lucky enough to live by the ocean should join together in supporting all forms of new local drought-proof water — including desalination.
Robert H. Sulnick is executive director of OC WISE, a non-partisan collation supporting the development of all forms of new water for Orange County.