MWD to Conduct Desalination Study

The Metropolitan Water District will undertake a $300,000 study of the feasibility of building a nuclear reactor, possibly next to Los Angeles International Airport, that would convert sea water to drinking water and generate electricity.

But the plant would not open until the year 2020 at the earliest, and will probably not be built at all because of safety and political considerations, water district spokesman Jay Malinowski said.

“It might sound absurd,” Malinowski said, “but this study is to determine whether we should study these things in depth.”

The study will consider 30 coastal sites from Oxnard to the Mexican border, officials said, including a property west of the airport and just north of the Hyperion Waste Treatment Plant.

Other sites being studied, though considered even less likely, include Terminal Island in San Pedro, Point Vicente in Rancho Palos Verdes and the Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey.

The water district has discussed converting saltwater to freshwater--known as desalination--for more than 30 years. In the 1950s, the district drew up the list of 30 locations that it considered large enough and close enough to major water lines for a desalination plant.

The district has maintained an 80-acre property at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Orange County with the thought of using it for a such a plant, Malinowski said, but the district may swap that land for the property near LAX.