Marin Municipal Water District approves desalination plan; could be ready by 2014
By Mark Prado
Marin Independent Journal
August 20, 2009
The Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors voted 4-0 Wednesday night to move forward with a controversial desalination project over the objections of dozens of speakers who called for the agency to solve its supply issues through conservation.
The vote doesn't mean the plant is a done deal. It will be a year or two before the district will begin the process to build a plant and there still will be time for more deliberation on the issue, according to water officials.
A 5 million gallon-per-day facility, expandable to 15 million gallons-per-day, was the option selected by the board. The desalination plan also includes a conservation component.
The decision did not sit well with many who came out to voice opposition to the plan to pump cleaned bay water to taps.
"It's an outrage you would be talking of drawing water from this toxic mess," said resident Dr. Larry Rose, who spoke at the sometimes heated hearing at the Showcase Theater at the Marin Civic Center.
A decision on a desalination option and approval of an environmental impact report on the project was necessary before the water district could proceed with future steps such as permitting, design, construction and operation of a facility.
With the decision, there is now a 30-day window for groups to legally challenge the findings of the project's environmental impact report.
While the decision keeps the project afloat, it does not shackle the district to desalination.
"This board has a number of offramps," said water board member Cynthia Koehler.
The board itself could change vastly before the ultimate fate of desalination is determined. In the November 2010 election four of five seats will be up for election.
Next up for desalination is a permitting process and studies on the project, which will occur this fall. A design of the facility also must be done. The board approved $400,000 for those next steps at the Wednesday meeting.
The board must also figure out how to pay for the project, which has been pegged at $105 million for construction. The project would likely be funded by the sale of bonds issued in two, or possibly even three, series.
Several speakers called for the issue to be put on a ballot, and members of the Marin Water Coalition said they are doing just that.
But there were a handful of supporters at the meeting.
"Conservation is laudable, but hypothetical," said resident Stuart Brown. "A desalination plant is actual and you can count on it."
Addressing the conservation-only option, Koehler said: "It's a mistake to put all your eggs in one basket. It's prudent to look at alternatives."
Most of Marin's water supply comes from reservoirs on Mount Tamalpais, and if they go dry, so can the county, water officials have said.
That happened in 1976-77, but a pipeline placed over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge delivered water from the East Bay. But that pipeline is long gone and no longer an option.
The desalination plant would take San Rafael Bay water and subject it to various forms of treatment to produce drinkable water through reverse osmosis technology.
The plant would be situated on MMWD-owned land near Pelican Way in San Rafael. Bay water would be piped from an intake near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. The plant could be operational by 2014.
A recent report by James Fryer of the group Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit consumer organization, suggested the water district has overestimated the expected water shortfall because it based it on high-use years, not demand in a normal year.
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