Thursday, September 25, 2014

Consideration to build a deep water desalination plant, Moss Landing


San Jose Mercury News/Central Coast/Monterey County Herald/Jim Johnson, 9/19/14. "Study finds Moss Landing's DeepWater Desal water cheaper than Cal Am's"

Nothing for a seal otter to do here
Moss Landing on Highway 1
between Santa Cruz and Monterey
"An independent review has found the proposed DeepWater Desal project at Moss Landing could deliver drinking water for up to 45 percent cheaper than the California American Water North Marina desal plant.

.... DeepWater Desal's proposal calls for building a desal plant on the Dynegy power plant site in Moss Landing that's capable of producing up to 10,000 acre feet of water per year initially, and 25,000 acre feet per year eventually. The plant would be co-located with a privately owned computer data center, which would pump seawater from deep beneath the ocean surface as a cooling agent, thus lowering power costs. The plan and its product water would be managed by a joint powers authority of area water agencies that would use the water.  Peninsula water district general manager Dave Stoldt said the study's conclusions are interesting, but added that DeepWater Desal still has a lot of progress to make before it can be considered a viable project."   Read article.

Conceptual DeepWater Desal plant
Related articles -  Monterey Herald/Jim Johnson, 6/17/14. "DeepWater Desal unveils project studies. Analysis indicates ocean intake plan would avoid killing marine life."  KSBW 8, 6/17/14, "Deep Water Desal aiming to build desalination plan in Moss Landing, video 3:01 minutes. "DeepWater Desal said its three-year study found that building a desalination plant on Dolan Road would have little negative impact on wildlife.KSBW 8, Amy Larson 6/18/14, "DeepWater Desal aiming to build plant, pipeline in Moss Landing."  "On Tuesday, DeepWater Desal released a summary of the proposed Monterey Bay Regional Water Project to KSBW and a three-year environmental study on how Moss Landing's unique and vibrant marine life would be affected. MBRWP would build a reverse osmosis desal plant across 100 acres behind the Moss Landing Power Plant on Dolan Road, and produce 25 million gallons of drinking water every day."
Reference -  DeepWater Desal/about. "DeepWater Desal LLC plans to build a 25M gallon per day desalination facility at Moss Landing that will supply potable water to water agencies in both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. The feed water will be drawn deep from the Monterey Submarine Canyon that comes inshore at Moss Landing because this water is clearer and cleaner than ground water and contains less marine life than shallow sea water sources." City Data/Moss Landing.

Note photo and graphic:   Moss Landing beach by Amy Larson from KSBW 8, conceptual DeepWater plan site layout from KSBS 8/6/18/14 (related above).  or more details from DeepWater Desal. Map from Captains Inn/Moss Landing location.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why isn't our Pacifica Council making a bid for a desal plant here in Pacifica?

Anonymous said...

Because they thought you said diesel and after that biofuel fiasco in the quarry, well.....

Anonymous said...

Because these plants cost about a billion dollars to build, are hard on the marine system and almost impossible to get past all the regulatory agencies. The water generated is not cheap eith, costs almost twice as what we have now.

Kathy Meeh said...

738, this proposed deep water plant seems to be an improvement in water desalination. Delivery cost is estimated at 45% less expensive than an existing system currently utilized by that area. A 3-year study indicates there is little affect on wildlife and the marine life system. Cost to build is not mentioned. Plant capacity is initially planned at 10,000 acre feet, eventually increased to 25,000 acre feet.

The delivery cost and the negative impact on wildlife areas have now been highlighted on the article. The geology at Moss Landing, with deep ocean areas, is conducive to building this deep water desalination system.

Steve Sinai said...

What's the point of having a desalination plant in Pacifica in the first place? How much would it contribute to the economy?

They are very expensive when compared to current water delivery systems, which is why you don't see them popping up all over the place.

Anonymous said...

Yes. lets definitely put an industrial plant in the quarry, because nothing sells 5 million dollar homes faster then the sound of trucks the view of a modern day refinery.

Anonymous said...

Put in whatever will make more money for Pacifica. A desal plant is a pipedream. Visitor serving business, high tech, post secondary for-profit education, entertainment are possible. I believe we still get just 17% of the property tax for those homes. What's that? For 10 homes valued at 4 or 5 mil each, 17% of $500,000? Selling them is not the city's problem. Income is.

Anonymous said...

It might become an extremely profitable industry with very low impacts.