Barbara Swier: Desalination would solve many of California’s problems

Instead of spending billions of dollars to steal Sacramento River water with massive tunnels under the Delta, and then stealing agricultural and city water from the Valley’s rivers to stop the seawater from coming into and destroying the Delta, we should be considering desalination. Building tunnels under the Delta is a very dangerous idea, and Southern California has for far too long taken someone else’s water. Many of those Southern California cities are adjacent to the ocean.

There are 24 countries in the world with desalination plants or facilities under construction. With new technologies, it is possible to have no brine discharge and many are solar powered.

Between the foolhardy idea of Delta tunnels and a high-speed train that will surely need subsidizing due to lack of riders, the combined budgets should be used for desalination plants along our coast. One is in process in Carlsbad; San Diego and Santa Barbara are talking about putting theirs back on line. Santa Cruz/Monterey, the Bay Area, and Fort Bragg, are all good candidates. As for the Bay Area, it’s long past time they stopped taking Hetch Hetchy water.

This story was originally published June 11, 2015 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Barbara Swier: Desalination would solve many of California’s problems."