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Lyles: Poway man’s outside-the-box water solution worth a look

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As is typical regarding most major challenges we face today, much of the discussion regarding how to deal with California’s water shortage misses the mark.

Most arguments deal with issues like whether the rationing guidelines issued by most governmental jurisdictions are stringent enough, whether it’s right to have neighbors snitching on neighbors who cheat, or whether agriculture should be forced to sacrifice as much as residents. The problem is, none of these debates offer real solutions aimed at the core cause of the problem: Californians don’t have enough fresh water to meet our needs. This will remain true after the drought regardless of how water is rationed now.

The only viable solution I’ve seen that offers a long-term solution to our water shortage is one developed by Poway resident Adam Sullivan that involves widespread use of salt water desalinization plants.

In the past, three major objections have stalled most efforts to employ desalinization plants to solve the state’s water problems. The first is that coastal land is very expensive and hard to come by. The second is that desalinization plants can create a negative impact on the surrounding environment. The third is that they use a fair amount of energy, and create undesirable carbon emissions. Mr. Sullivan’s strategy overcomes all these challenges.

California uses 40 million acre feet of fresh water per year. Eighty percent of this goes to agriculture and 20 percent, or eight million acre feet, go to residential use. Plants such as the successful desalinization plant in Carlsbad produce approximately fifty-six thousand acre feet of fresh water per year. Desalinization plants in Israel produce about double that capacity at a lower cost per acre foot.

But here’s where Mr. Sullivan encourages us to think outside the box and leapfrog an entire generation of innovation in this arena to pursue a solution that not only surpasses the strategies employed in Carlsbad and Israel, but solves the water shortage problem permanently with none of the adverse consequences of current methodologies.

Why not build a fleet of nuclear powered, desalinization barges that move up and down the coast of California to provide fresh water residential use? The U.S. Navy has an unparalleled track record in the marine application of nuclear power, having operated nuclear powered ships and submarines safely for decades. This technology could easily be adapted to operate desalinization barges that would leave no carbon footprint. The only land-based infrastructure that would be required would be a series of pipelines from shoreline to reservoir. The barges would pump fresh water to existing reservoirs, then it would be distributed through infrastructure that already exists. This is simple to do because the majority of California’s population resides in close proximity to the coast.

The barges would move from location to location, allowing them to distribute the residual salt created by the desalinization process back into the ocean in manageable amounts so as not to disrupt the coastal eco-system. When maintenance is required the barges can easily be towed into port and replaced by another. On an ongoing basis, the barges can be moved to areas where the need is the greatest, affording tremendous flexibility that land based system can’t provide.

Our current experience and knowledge base in these areas of expertise indicate it is possible to build a sea-based system based on these principles that could easily supply two thirds of California’s residential water requirements in perpetuity for less than the cost of Governor Brown’s bullet train. This is a practical solution to a pressing problem that would benefit every Californian if properly implemented.

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