The vast $320 million desalination plant approved this week by San Diego’s regional water authorities is likely to serve as a test case for whether such a large project can meet its goals while safeguarding its Pacific environment.
The plant, to be built near Carlsbad, north of San Diego, will be the first large-scale desalination operation on the West Coast and the largest in the hemisphere. “If they build it well and it operates well and the price is right, we will see more,” said Peter Gleick, the cofounder and president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif.
“I think there’s going to be some hesitancy to really expand desalination until this plant is up and running,” he added. “There’s going to be hesitancy on the part of everyone — regulators, water agencies and municipalities.”
Other ambitious desalination projects are being considered along the California coast, from Marin County just north of San Francisco to Santa Cruz, Monterey, Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Cities, water companies and environmentalists are likely to scrutinize how the plant near Carlsbad performs financially and technically and weigh its environmental impact.
Environmentalists have battled the project in lawsuits, raising concerns about the amount of fish that will be killed by the pumping process and about potential change to the aquatic ecosystem when leftover brine is returned to the sea. So far they have not won any victories.
Poseidon Resources pursued the project for over six years before gaining final approval on Wednesday from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the last of four agencies whose assent was needed.
The plant will filter 100 million gallons of seawater daily, taking salt out by filtering it through fine membranes, a process called reverse osmosis. If construction proceeds as scheduled, it will produce 50 million gallons of drinking water by 2011.
The plant would provide water to nine municipal water agencies in northern San Diego County, filling 10 percent of the county’s drinking water needs. Its capacity makes it one of the biggest outside the Middle East.
The California Coastal Commission, one of the agencies that approved the project, raised questions last month about whether Poseidon’s plan to mitigate the damage to aquatic life was sufficient. Poseidon plans to create 55 acres of new coastal wetlands to mitigate the loss of fish. The Coastal Commission suggested that a minimum of 66 acres was required, but the regional water board signed off on the original plan.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Renewable Energy in Naperville City
Allan Poole is Director of Public Utilities for the City of Naperville in charge of the City’s water, wastewater, and electric utility systems serving a present population of 145,000 in DuPage and Will Counties, Illinois. Naperville has owned and operated its electric utility since 1899 and as a public power community saw the opportunity four years ago to support renewable electric energy development in Illinois.
In partnership with Community Energy, an Iberdrola Company, they have developed one of the most successful voluntary programs for renewable energy city in the nation. From January, 2006 at the start of their Renewable Energy Option Program they have steadily increased the number of their contributing residential customers to 4,300 representing a residential participation rate of 8.5% for the 50,600 residences in Naperville.
At present the average contributing residential customer makes a monthly premium payment on their monthly utility bill for approximately 470 kiloWatt-hours of electrical energy to develop new wind, solar, and hydro power in Illinois. The U.S. Department of Energy in 2008 has listed Naperville in their top ten for residential participation.
Allan has been employed with the City of Naperville since 1972, first as Director of Water and Wastewater Utilities until 1992 and since that time as Director of Public Utilities which added the Electric Utility. Naperville’s population was only 23,000 in 1972 and utility systems have been a vital part of the rapid growth to the present 145,000.
He is a 1961 graduate of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in Civil-Environmental Engineering and a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Washington State. He is Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, and a Life Member of the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation.
Allan has served as the City of Naperville’s representative on the Board of Commissioners of the DuPage Water Commission for the past 20 years, and on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency and the University of Iowa Professional Advisory Board.
He was the recipient of the Professional Engineering Management Award of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers in 1996 and the Public Works Leader of the Year Award of the American Public Works Association, Chicago Metropolitan Chapter in 2000.
He believes in a line from a popular Stevie Wonder song….”Yes my friends the answer is blowing in the wind.”
In partnership with Community Energy, an Iberdrola Company, they have developed one of the most successful voluntary programs for renewable energy city in the nation. From January, 2006 at the start of their Renewable Energy Option Program they have steadily increased the number of their contributing residential customers to 4,300 representing a residential participation rate of 8.5% for the 50,600 residences in Naperville.
At present the average contributing residential customer makes a monthly premium payment on their monthly utility bill for approximately 470 kiloWatt-hours of electrical energy to develop new wind, solar, and hydro power in Illinois. The U.S. Department of Energy in 2008 has listed Naperville in their top ten for residential participation.
Allan has been employed with the City of Naperville since 1972, first as Director of Water and Wastewater Utilities until 1992 and since that time as Director of Public Utilities which added the Electric Utility. Naperville’s population was only 23,000 in 1972 and utility systems have been a vital part of the rapid growth to the present 145,000.
He is a 1961 graduate of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in Civil-Environmental Engineering and a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Washington State. He is Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, and a Life Member of the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation.
Allan has served as the City of Naperville’s representative on the Board of Commissioners of the DuPage Water Commission for the past 20 years, and on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency and the University of Iowa Professional Advisory Board.
He was the recipient of the Professional Engineering Management Award of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers in 1996 and the Public Works Leader of the Year Award of the American Public Works Association, Chicago Metropolitan Chapter in 2000.
He believes in a line from a popular Stevie Wonder song….”Yes my friends the answer is blowing in the wind.”
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