Opinion: Water World: Carlsbad desalination plant answers a regional need with scientific ingenuity
By: Brian Blakely

San Diego officials and the California Coastal Commission recently began constructing a new desalination plant in Carlsbad to better southern California's current water shortage issues.

Initially, state and local officials opposed the $320 million plant, primarily due to its high energy cost. Yet as the water shortages continued, the all-but-shelved idea quickly became a reality.

"Water is going to be very short until you have a new source," said Carlsbad Mayor Claude Lewis. "And the only new source is desalination. I don't care what anyone says."

Desalination is a process that removes dissolved minerals from seawater, brackish water, or treated wastewater, and then transforms it into drinkable water.

The Carlsbad plant up will pump 50 million gallons of drinkable water daily to more than 300,000 households in San Diego County.

Using the ocean as a resource is genius. City officials should have done this when the problem first presented itself. Making saltwater drinkable is innovation at it's finest.

A handful of scientists and water authorities continue to eagerly lean in favor of desalination.

However, opposing sides argue that desalination is expensive and creates waste problems that outweigh the benefits of creating a near unlimited source for potable water. Environmentalists also object because fish and other organisms are going to get sucked into the pumps.

Unfortunately, it's us or the organisms.

We need water to survive. The thought of actually running out of drinkable water seems far-fetched - until it happens to us. We then realize how important it is to look for alternatives to the over-priced and scarce water resources we're so dependent on.

Every alternative is going to use a lot of power, a lot of money and a lot of time. So why not use something that's promising?

With a growing population and droughts that sneak up on us at times, the desalination plant in Carlsbad is a fine addition to finding a positive alternative for consistent, clean drinkable water.

The outcome of Carlsbad's plant, successful or not, will somewhat determine the fate of desalination.

If the procedures go well, then we're talking expansion. If not, then I see nothing but a long road of environmentalist doubt, misery and arguments ahead.

The plant in Carlsbad is going to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere and is expected to be complete by 2012.

"We don't encourage people to put in a desalination plant unless they need one - unless they have no other options," said Lisa Harthorne, president of the International Desalination Association.

Right now, Southern California is in dire need of improved water procurement systems, and this plant couldn't have come at a better time.