San Diego pilot go ahead – marines may hit the beach

San Diego County Water Authority has given the go ahead for a US$ 4 million project to build a two-year pilot to test methods of desalinating seawater into potable water. The deal is part of the authority’s agreement with the US Marine Corps on a means to study how a desalination plant might be built on the military’s Camp Pendleton site.

The pilot had won a US$ 200,000 funding from the US Bureau of Reclamation under its Desalination and Water Purification Research Programme.

Were the Camp Pendleton desalination project to go ahead, permitting and construction were expected to take more than ten years according to officials. However, neither party is currently bound to proceed with the project.

Two sites have been targeted for a possible plant capable of producing 600 Ml/d.