Biggest U.S. Desalination Site Wins OK

State health officials said Thursday they have granted preliminary approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach that could produce drinking water for nearly half a million Orange County residents. Using superfine filters, the plant, proposed by Poseidon Resources, would turn seawater into 50 million gallons of drinkable water daily, making it the nation’s largest desalination plant.

“We’re saying ... we think it will work and meet drinking water standards,” said Dave Spath, chief of the drinking water and environmental management division at the state Department of Health Services. “All they have to do now is build it and demonstrate it.”

The proposal still must be formally approved by several federal, state and local agencies, but the one state agency’s conceptual agreement is “testimony to the purity of the drinking water we can develop,” said Andrew L. Shea, vice president of Poseidon Resources.

Desalination, widely used in the Mideast, is increasingly viewed as a reliable source of drinking water in communities across the United States. In California, the need is particularly acute as the drought-prone state is forced to reduce its reliance on the Colorado River.

Besides the proposed plant in Huntington Beach, facilities in Dana Point, Playa del Rey, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Carlsbad and Chula Vista are being considered. Poseidon is also helping build a massive plant in Tampa, Fla.

The state health department has been studying the Huntington Beach proposal for two years. Spath said the approval means that the reverse-osmosis filters and other treatment processes could effectively remove contaminants and bacteria found in the ocean water.

The $240-million plant would be built next to the AES power plant and would use the plant’s intake and outtake pipelines to collect seawater and dispose of leftover salty brine.

The plant, which could be operating by 2006, still needs final approvals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Coastal Commission, the state Department of Health Services, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board and the city of Huntington Beach.

Environmental documents were released Thursday so the city’s Planning Commission can hear the matter in less than two months.