Carlsbad Desalination Project

Carlsbad Desalination Project Site: Encina Power Station

What’s the latest?

The San Diego County Water Authority has begun direct negotiations on an agreement to purchase water from the Carlsbad Desalination Project from the project’s private developer, Poseidon Resources. The Water Authority expects to have final draft agreement ready for review in early 2012.

During negotiations, Water Authority staff and Poseidon representatives will work on terms for price, reliability of deliveries and other factors. Water Authority staff also will work with Poseidon to complete planning and technical studies related to what capital improvements will be necessary to deliver and integrate water from the desalination plant into the Water Authority’s regional water storage and pipeline system.

Once negotiations on a draft water purchase agreement are complete, the Water Authority will circulate the final draft for review by its member agencies and the public. Member agencies will have 60 days to review the agreement and declare whether they intend to purchase directly from the Water Authority, at full cost, a portion of the desalinated water supply from the Carlsbad project as a local supply for their agency.

In preparation for more detailed workshops on the specifics of a proposed water purchase agreement between the Water Authority and Poseidon Resources for the Carlsbad Desalination Project, the Water Authority Board will hold a workshop at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 19, to discuss issues regarding how the desalination project fits into the region’s long range supply diversification program and the financial and operational aspects of integrating this new supply into the Water Authority existing rate structure and water delivery system. The workshop is open to the public.

The Water Authority expects water from the Carlsbad project will be available by 2016.

The Carlsbad Desalination Project, which has been in development since 1998 and has obtained all required permits and environmental clearances, will be the first large-scale seawater desalination plant in California. When completed, it will produce 56,000 acre-feet of highly reliable local water annually – enough to meet the needs of more than 110,000 average single-family households. In 2020, water from the plant would account for about 7 percent of the total regional supply.

Carlsbad Desalination Plant Site Plan