Desalination Demo Plant Set To Open

By Harry Saltzgaver
Executive Editor

Long Beach’s cutting-edge water desalination demonstration plant will be ready to open by the end of the month.

While the Water Department tests the technology developed by its own Diem X. Vuong, it also wants to experiment with a new way to get the seawater out of the sea. That effort would create a demonstration well at Junipero Beach — although beach goers won’t know there is anything under the sand.

“Traditionally, desalination plants have pulled seawater in with a ‘straw,’” said Ryan Alsop, government and public affairs manager for the Water Department. “The fish, plankton and such is kept out with screens. Then they have to deal with the brine (salt and other minerals removed in the desalination process).

“We want to try to show this alternative method can both bring water in and return the brine without damage to the ecology.Š Once the construction is complete, you won’t be able to see anything on the beach.”

Long Beach has been pursuing desalination as an alternate water source for more than five years. Both the federal and state governments have helped pay for the full-sized demonstration plant, which will treat up to 300,000 gallons of seawater a day, testing whether the new method is economically feasible, as has been shown in theory and with models.

That plant started construction in November 2003 and will be ready to operate by the end of this month. Alsop said there will be a dedication ceremony on Sept. 30.

Water for that test plant will come from the outflow of the Haynes (Electric) Generation Plant — a typical scenario for other desalination plants in the country. But that scenario offers complications, from depending on what the generation plant does for water to finding ways to get rid of the waste.

So Long Beach wants to see if water can be drawn directly from the ocean, using the ocean floor as the filter. The same system would be used for disposing of brine, again using the ocean floor to dissipate the salt before it hits the water.

“This test well won’t be connected to anything,” Alsop said. “What we are most interest in is testing the hydrology to see if the concept is feasible.”

The test includes an underground well attached to two 500-foot perforated pipes set horizontally 30 feet below the ocean floor. The pipes would be perpendicular to Junipero beach.

No permanent environmental impact is expected from the test project, and the city is circulating a “Notice of Intent to Adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration” now. That means no Environmental Impact Report would be required before the project is installed.

The city’s Planning Commission is expected to conduct a hearing Oct. 20 to decide whether to adopt the Negative Declaration. The public review period for the proposal has started, and will continue until Sept. 27.

Cost for the ocean floor project is estimated at $5 million. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is paying half, and the state Department of Water Resources is paying another $1.35 million, with the city paying the rest. If the Planning Department gives its approval in October, construction could start next year.

Copies of the proposed negative declaration and all supporting material are available for review at the city’s Planning and Building Department office (seventh floor, City Hall) and on line at www.longbeach.gov/plan. Mail or faxed comments can be sent to Angela Reynolds, Planning Officer, 7th Floor, 333 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802; fax 570-6068. There also are complete descriptions of both the ocean floor project and the desalination plant on the Water Department’s Web site at www.lbwater.org.

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