1. Diversifying California’s Water Supply:
Why Californians ought to embrace desalination
By Vardan Kajberuni
November 30, 2015
roughts in California have increased in frequency and severity – and it’s only going to get worse as
climate change and global warming progress into the 21st
century. California’s population is
projected to increase from 36 million to 40 million by 2020 while relying on the same water sources in
order to provide for its growing demands. Public policies and state projects have altered the state’s
ecosystem over the past century – causing tremendous environmental damage in order to provide for its
growing needs.
Water scarcity is a long-term problem facing California; therefore, desalination of brackish water and
seawater – combined with current water sources – is an environmentally safer and more secure
alternative source which will assist in mitigating the effects of water shortage.
The Carlsbad Desalination plant is already approved by the State of California and is scheduled to
provide drinking water to the San Diego County residence by the end of 2015. It is the largest
desalination project in the Western Hemisphere which is projected to deliver 50 million gallons of
drinking water per day. Seawater is converted into fresh water by using the reverse osmosis (RO) system
which has a fifty percent conversion rate and the water is further purified by multiple filtration units. RO
is the preferred method of desalination in most plants across the globe due to its effectiveness and
relatively low-energy costs.
srael had an extremely limited water supply with a large agricultural industry – much like California –
which relied heavily on ground water reserves prior to a seven year drought that peaked in 2008.
Israel currently produces more than fifty percent of its water use from seawater desalination and no
longer faces fears of water shortages. Israel faced many similar choices that California does today – they
implemented strict conservational policies which limited water usage and penalized water waste – but it
ultimately proved to be mostly ineffective because of prolonged drought periods and population growth.
Research and developments in the desalination technologies have stalled in the United States for the past
50 years – largely due to its relatively higher water costs and uncertainties about its environmental
impacts. Water scarce regions have provided technological advancements in the recent decades which
have dramatically lowered operating costs and brought the price of desalinated water down below other
sources – while long term environmental effects are still being researched.
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2. otential environmental impacts and higher water prices may drive critiques to reject desalination
plants. Consequently, knowledge of the possible environmental impacts of desalination processes is
vital when considering desalination among many other water supply alternatives – which include ground
water, aqueducts, man-made reservoirs, and rivers.
Ground fresh water sources in California ultimate rely on precipitation in the form of rain or snow ice-
melt run-off in order to replenish its reserves. Ground water is vigorously tapped, mostly in agricultural
areas, which accounts for thirty percent of “normal” and sixty percent of “dry” years of the total water
supply. Eighty percent of California’s water is used in agriculture; thus, water shortages have a more
devastating effect on agricultural rather than urban areas.
Dams are built to store and divert water from rivers, which results in destruction of ecosystems and
disruption of migratory fish patterns which endangers its survival. The Golden State’s water is mostly
imported by the Metropolitan Water District using State Water Project and the Colorado River
Aqueduct, which thru the “dry” periods is stretched to its limits – generating disputes with neighboring
states over water allocation, generating public panic and debates of rationing and conservation, and leads
to the depletion of ground water reserves.
Desalination plants also generate a negative environmental impact, which is an area that needs much
more attention. For instance: desalination plant’s energy is mostly used for operating its hydraulic
pumps, which pushes the sea water in high pressures for RO processes – using renewable energies and
improvements in water pump systems is a proven method in reducing energy consumption. Extra
concentration of saline water that is deposited back into the ocean disrupts the local water quality –
utilizing a pipeline which will evenly diffuse water away from the shores may resolve the issue of saline
concentration. Better identification of wildlife and development of prevention schemes will save many
fish or brine from entering the filtration system and ensure smoother plant operation.
iversifying California’s water supply system is long overdue. Embracing desalination technologies
is a proven and a reliable process which can lessen the environmental impacts of current existing
sources and provide the state with an alternative environmentally safer source of clean fresh water.
Prolonged droughts and population growth are unsustainable under current conditions and complacency
on these issues will have devastating effects on the California’s population and its ecosystem if
appropriate actions are not taken in a timely manner.
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3. Works Cited
"Global Warming and Climate Change; Warming Temperatures Implicated in Recent California
Droughts." NewsRx Health & Science (2015): 280. ProQuest. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.
This article is unbiased which outlines the future problems facing California as climate change
and global warming last into the 21st
century – it’s a review of scientific studies which indicate a
connection between global warming and droughts in California. The severity and longer periods will
become more common according to this article which assisted me in realizing that the continual reliance
on current sources of water with population growth is unsustainable.
“California drought, now entering its fourth year, is one of the longest consecutive periods in the
historical record during which conditions were both severely dry and severely warm. The climate
models also indicate that such conditions will become even more common if global warming continues
in the future…”
Kershner, Isabel. "Aided by the Sea, Israel Overcomes an Old Foe: Drought." The New York
Times. May 29, 2015.
This is an unbalanced article which only talks about the benefits of desalination in a specific
country. While analyzing this article I was surprised to see on how much Israel is ecologically similar to
California and how the country united and tackled the problem of water scarcity. Israel was depleting its
ground water reserves at an unprecedented rate in order to keep its agriculture alive, while the public
policy was enforcing strict conservational schemes. The country hit a tipping point during an
extraordinary drought that lasted seven years and peaked in 2008. It needed a “wake-up” call and
Israelis responded with investments in desalination technologies and water recycling plants. Today
Israel no longer faces water shortage even during dry years and even has a surplus. Evaluating Israel’s
response to water scarcity provided me with a pathway in which California may choose follow.
“With its part-Mediterranean, part-desert climate, Israel had suffered from chronic shortages and
exploitation of its natural water resources for decades.”
“Across the country, Israelis were told to cut their shower time by two minutes. Washing cars with hoses
was outlawed and those few wealthy enough to absorb the cost of maintaining a lawn were permitted to
water it only at night.”
“But that was about six years ago. Today, there is plenty of water in Israel. A lighter version of an old
“Israel is drying up” campaign has been dusted off to advertise baby diapers.”

4. "Nation's Largest Ocean Desalination Plant Goes up near San Diego; Future of the California Coast?" –
San Jose Mercury News. 29 May 2014.
Despite many obstacles the desalination plant in Carlsbad California is expected to start its
operations at the end of this year. It’s a privet-public project which will deliver 50 million gallons of
water to the San Diego county residents. The location of this plant was specifically chosen to be next to
a power plant in order to maximize efficiency by using the its water intakes intended for cooling the
reactors. Studying this article was extremely helpful in writing my article, because it was mostly
unbiased and presented the both sides of the story. The article talks about the environmental impacts of
desalination, water costs, conservation and other desalination projects which are proposed on the
California coast.
“California's best hope for a drought-proof water supply: the largest ocean desalination plant in the
Western Hemisphere.”
“The cost is about double that of water obtained from building a new reservoir or recycling wastewater,
according to a 2013 study from the state Department of Water Resources.”
Aybar, H. S., et al. "Solar Powered RO Desalination: Investigations on Pilot Project of PV Powered RO
Desalination System." Applied Solar Energy 46.4 (2010): 275-84. ProQuest. 7 Sep. 2010.
This scholarly article discussed the desalination alternatives through Reverse Osmosis systems
using solar energy and other renewable sources for the plant operations. The article is impartial and
focuses on introducing efficiency to the desalination processes. There were mainly engineering and
scientific proposals with formulas in this article and also the acknowledgment that the water scarcity is a
growing problem all across the world. The research behind this paper gives a better overall
understanding of the technical knowledge behind desalination and how it can be environmentally
friendly with the combination of renewable energies and improvements in efficiency.
“Reverse Osmosis (RO) is quite suitable from small to medium capacity systems, and has good
perspectives for cost reduction and improvement in efficiency in the near future.”
“Considering the energy supply, RO presents lower energy consumption comparing to other methods of
desalination.”

5. National Academies Press, (U.S.), and (U.S.) National Research Council. Desalination: A National
Perspective. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2008. EBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
This is a neutral and extremely informative book on costs and benefits of desalination plants. The
topics vary from economical costs and benefits to environmental impacts and solutions. This book
outlines the overall effects and reasons for developing desalination plants – the best ways to produce
fresh water with environmental considerations. Desalination process is explained in extreme detail with
data and graphs which assist in recognizing the reasoning behind these proposals. There are many
references to regions with low precipitation, high populations, and limited water supply that are using or
are in need of desalination plants – corresponding with California’s current dilemma regarding water
scarcity. This book also talks about the history of desalination and the growing demand over the past
century which facilitated the technological advances and brought down the price of water that the plants
produce which placed them at a competition against conventional sources of drinking water. There is a
balanced analysis of environmental impacts of desalination plants and the current conventional sources
of water in chapter 5 – which played a significant role for me in writing my article.
“The costs of other alternatives for augmenting water supplies have continued to rise, making
desalination production costs more attractive in a relative sense.”
“… Concerns about potential environmental impacts continue to limit the application of desalination
technology in the United States…”
“… desalination costs are already low enough to make desalination an attractive option for some
communities when the benefits of desalination are considered, such as providing a drought-resistant
supply and providing a means to diversify a large community’s water supply portfolio.”