Federal US funding for the Long Beach desalination and water-reuse development projects in California now only needs President Obama’s signature after the Senate on 15 October 2009 approved the final version of the US$ 33.5 billion 2010 Energy & Water Appropriations bill.
“With these funds, we will now be able to complete the third and final phase of our Seawater Desalination Research & Development Project,” said Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long Beach Water Department. “We will also be able to continue to expand the city’s use of recycled water, which reduces our consumption of potable water, and makes Long Beach less dependent on outside sources of water, which as everyone knows are becoming more and more unreliable.”
The third phase of the desalination plant R&D will be completed by the end of 2010, when a full-scale plant will be built. The water reuse project is less well advanced.