Mailbag: Orange County needs desalinated water
As a diverse coalition of Orange County organizations supporting the development of all kinds of new local water for the county, we applaud San Diego for its foresight in establishing a seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad capable of providing the region with 50 million gallons a day of local drought-proof water.
Orange County should follow suit.
Bipartisan support in the form of cities throughout the county, the Board of Supervisors, the entire O.C. state legislative delegation, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, and both U.S. senators from California, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, support building the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant.
This support is based on the fact that Orange County needs the 50 million gallons a day of drought-proof water the proposed Huntington Beach facility can provide. The Orange County Water District, which predicts a substantial shortfall of water by 2035, despite its groundbreaking conservation and water recycling programs, has twice supported the H.B. project before the Coastal Commission and has entered into negotiations with Poseidon for all the water that would be produced by the H.B. facility, based on its understanding of our region’s dependence on imported water, projected population growth, climate change and scientific predictions of drought having become the “new normal.”
In this context, we should all be working together to ensure water independence for Orange County, which includes desalination.
Robert H. Sulnick
Executive director, Orange County Water Independence Sustainability and Efficiency
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