Public consultation opens on Los Angeles’ first large seawater desalination project

West Basin Municipal Water District, California, US, has issued a draft environmental impact review (EIR) for a large size desalination plant.

If approved, the plant will be the first large seawater desalination facility in Los Angeles County.

The draft EIR outlines proposals for a $380 million desalination plant to produce 20 million gallons a day (76,000 m3/d) of water, with potential to expand up to 60 million gallons a day (227,000 m3/d). The plant would be located on the site of El Segundo Generating Station, on the border of Manhattan Beach, and would supply 11 per cent of West Basin’s water demand.

The document details “areas of controversy and issues to be resolved,” including the impacts on marine life of ocean intake technologies, and brine discharge, as well as energy requirements and greenhouse emissions, project siting, impacts on economic growth, alternatives to the project, and impacts when combined with other existing and proposed coastal developments.

Public consultation meetings are scheduled for 25 April 2018 and 12 May 2018, and comments may be submitted in writing by 25 May 2018, after which the West Basin board of elected directors, and numerous environmental regulators, must approve the project.

Check out the full text of the draft EIR.