Huntington Beach desalination plant

Ringside: Large Scale Desalination Could Transform California

October 30, 2025 2:45 amOctober 30, 2025 2:46 am

Why is it axiomatic among California’s water agencies and policymakers that large scale desalination is inconceivable in California? That certainly isn’t the case in other arid locales. In 2024, an estimated 30 million acre feet of fresh water was produced by desalination...

Ringside: Desalination at Scale is Cost Competitive

March 13, 2025 3:30 amMarch 13, 2025 3:31 am

On May 22, 2022, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny final approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. It would have produced 56,000 acre feet of fresh water per year, and would have been privately financed. To...

Ringside: How Much Water Will $30 Billion Buy?

April 10, 2024 2:20 pmApril 10, 2024 2:20 pm

So far this year I had the privilege of attending two water oriented events. The first, in February, was at the annual CalDesal conference in Sacramento. The second, in March, was at the Kern County Water Summit in Bakersfield. I...

Ringside: Comparing the Delta Tunnel versus Desalination

February 1, 2024 6:57 amFebruary 2, 2024 6:27 am

Debates over the efficacy of water projects often focus on the monthly cost to end users. For example, in May 2022, a few days before the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny the final permit to build a desalination plant in...

Objections to Desalination are Shopworn, Discredited Cliches

March 7, 2021 2:11 amMarch 6, 2021 9:30 pm

Anyone who still thinks that the Huntington Beach desalination plant poses a significant threat to the environment should ask themselves: Why would Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who depends on donors that never saw an environmentalist overreach they didn’t like,...

Gov. Newsom Replaces Orange County Water Board Member Over Desalination Plant

October 22, 2020 4:04 pmOctober 25, 2020 1:49 pm

On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom removed a director of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board after months of criticisms and questions over a proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Director William von Blasingame had repeatedly challenged the Governor...