Experimental Mini-Plant to Desalinate Seawater

The Metropolitan Water District board has approved spending $800,000 for an experimental seawater desalination project at a Southern California Edison power plant here.

“It’s just a small facility, enough to fill four hot tubs,” MWD spokesman Rob Hallwachs said Friday.

The 2,000-gallon mini-plant, which was designed and built by the district’s facility in La Verne, will be taken to Huntington Beach and should be running by the end of October, Hallwachs said. It will operate for one year on an experimental basis, but the water will not be fed into the public system.

The total cost of the project is $5 million.

“It’s far too expensive for such a small plant to hook it up to the water lines,” Hallwachs said. “It’s a test. For the next year we’re not going to be putting that water into the drinking supply system.”

Ultimately, the MWD hopes to build a 5,000-gallon plant, which would be the largest in the country, serving 10,000 households. Hallwachs did not rule out the possibility that the larger, permanent facility would be built in Huntington Beach.

MWD General Manager John R. Wodraska said the district is committed “to developing cost-effective desalination, one of the alternatives we are pursuing to improve our region’s water supply.”