On May 8th, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approved the long-term operation of Poseidon Water’s Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Plant. The Carlsbad facility, the largest, most technologically advanced and energy efficient seawater desalination plant in the Americas, is the first facility to be approved under the State Water Resources Control Board’s seawater desalination regulations.
 
According to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s press release, “Desalinated water, as regulated by the permit for Poseidon, is an important component of our overall water supply portfolio,” said San Diego Water Board chair Henry Abarbanel. 

By Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register
A lawsuit seeking a new environmental report for the controversial Poseidon desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach was rejected by a Sacramento Superior Court judge on Tuesday. Three environmental groups had filed the suit, arguing that the plant’s 2010 Environmental Impact Report needed to be entirely done over because of subsequent changes to the proposal.

Huntington Beach, CA – Today, the State Water Resources Control Board approved the long-awaited seawater desalination amendment to the state’s Ocean Plan. The new policy confirms that seawater desalination facilities can be sited, built, and operated without significant, unmitigable impacts to coastal and marine resources, and reinforces the role seawater desalination will play in addressing current and future water demand across California.

Ocean desalination is an urgent necessity for Orange County. As California faces mandatory water restrictions for the first time in history, we need to be pursuing all of our options. I often hear versions of the question, "How will Orange County protect itself from this systemic water crisis?"

As a scientist, doctor and father, desal is a commonsense answer. It’s really a no-brainer. We're blessed with an abundant water source (the Pacific Ocean) at our doorstep, so let's tap it. But, as an elected official representing the public, I know that it’s imperative to also contemplate costs and taxpayer risk

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Every time drought strikes California, the people of this state cannot help noticing the substantial reservoir of untapped water lapping at their shores — 187 quintillion gallons of it, more or less, shimmering so invitingly in the sun.

Now, for the first time, a major California metropolis is on the verge of turning the Pacific Ocean into an everyday source of drinking water. A $1 billion desalination plant to supply booming San Diego County is under construction here and due to open as early as November, providing a major test of whether California cities will be able to resort to the ocean to solve their water woes.