Are there more Water desalinization plans and plants constructed for Southern California?

Question

I have read of waste water plants as a part of the answer and wondered if desalinization plants were also a method gaining more interest.

Answer 1

Desalinization plants use a lot of power. With energy cost as high as they are now it's not cost effective.

Answer 2

The best way to find out, is to contact the California Department of Environmental Quality :

http://www.calepa.ca.gov/

Go to Water Division, and ask for on-line data bases which contain this information, or inquire as to when public meetings regarding this topic are scheduled. Attend. Ask for brochures etc.

Answer 3

We have historically built desalination plants using diesel or coal powered electrical generation and or pumping.

To make this part of the solution we would need to be building the energy solution, such as solar, wave, tidal, wind, nuclear, or geothermal... some combination.

And it has to be available as the desalination plant is ready to go. But we are already deploying solar PV technology as fast as we are making it, and for many places we would want desalination, we would  not have reliable wind.

And when we have no wind power we often do not have much wave power. Tidal has not proven cost effective,

Geothermal can be reliable and cost effective  as can solar thermal energy. Fortunately southern California has a lot of sun that can be deployed.

But if major scale desalination projects be needed one would need to build some nuclear plants along the SanAndreos Fault.