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Chapter 9: Reliability Through Diversification
When it’s operational in 2016, the Carlsbad
Desalination Project will be the largest seawa-
ter desalination plant in the nation, delivering
between 48,000 and 56,000 acre-feet of
water a year, or roughly a third of all locally pro-
duced water. The Water Authority expects
desalination to meet
about 7 percent of
overall demand in
2020. Not only will
the Carlsbad plant
provide a drought-
proof source, it will
reduce San Diego
County’s water sup-
ply vulnerability to
natural disasters and
regulatory restric-
tions. Initially, water produced by the plant and
delivered to the Water Authority system will
cost about twice as much as less reliable
i
mported supplies from MWD. However, the
cost of
MWD’s water has risen rapidly in recent
years, and water from the Carlsbad plant is
expected to cost about the same as supplies
from MWD by the mid-2020s.
While that project takes shape, the Water
Authority also is evaluating other potential sites
for desalination plants, including Camp
Pendleton in northern San Diego County and
Baja California,
Mexico.
STRIKING THE RIGHT BALANCE
It’s been said that the story of San Diego
County is the story of the search for water.
That search has taken several
monumental
turns. Prior to 1947, the county relied solely on
local resources. Then, the arrival of cheap and
abundant i
mported water facilitated a complete
change of direction. For nearly half a century,
access to supplies i
mported through MWD
fueled incredible growth in San Diego County’s
economy and helped make its communities
among the most enviable places to live. It also
made the development of
more expensive,
locally controlled supplies appear less i
mpor-
tant – for a while.
Since the early 1990s, the price of
MWD’s
supplies has risen dramatically, while the relia-
bility of those supplies has become increasingly
Thomas V.
Wornham
Rendering of completed seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad
“Adding desalination to our portfolio
is monumental in the same way that
i
mporting water from the Colorado River
was in the 1940s,” Thomas V.
Wornham,
Chair of the Water Authority’s Board,
said when the Water Purchase
Agreement was signed. “We are making
this investment not only for our own
security, but to maintain our quality of life
for future generations.”
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