More on the Link Between Desalination and Unsustainable Growth

A few receivers of my request did not feel I made the link between the Marin desalination plant and unsustainable growth sufficiently clear.

Thank you for your considered response. You have raised a number of issues that I would like to take one at a time.
(1) Let me start with the “tying the hands” of the incumbent MMWD board. These are of course their words and their reason for putting a competing initiative on the ballot, one that allows the ratepayers to vote without tying the board’s hands.

When the incumbent MMWD board was presented with opposition to their plans they proceeded to approve a faulty EIR. That matter is now in the courts. When presented with the possibility of a petition drive they did nothing. It was only after the voters collected over 18,000 signatures did the incumbent MMWD board act. They had three options, accept the initiative’s mandate and give the voters their opportunity to vote before any new construction spending, place an immediate voter approval measure on the ballot, or they could put an alternative and competing measure on the ballot. They chose the third option, Measure S, to confuse the voters.

The salient differences between Measure T, T for thrifty, and S, S for spendthrift, are when the voters get to be heard, before or after more construction spending on the desalination plant. The incumbent MMWD board wants the freedom to spend up to $30 million towards the total $115 million for the plant. Just whose hands are being tied? Lets not forget that the San Ramon-Dublin Utility District fully completed their desalination project prior to hearng the voices of the voters. That facility is mothballed never having been operated.

(2) Your broad point regarding the watersheds of the Eel and Russian rivers and the groundwater basin of the Santa Rosa Plain is a great opening for addressing regional water planning. A Marin desalination plant is not part of the solution. Our planning and building codes need to be tightened greatly. They need to incorporate no new water use and extremely low carbon use. Both of these goals are attainable with current technology.

I fully admire the passion for protecting the Russian and Eel River watersheds. Many in Marin love the San Francisco Bay as well. It will be harmed by the proposed desalination plant’s discharge. The Potter Valley diversion does need to be stopped. In the long run it has not helped the Russian River watershed and apparently it is endangering that of the Eel River.

One of the members of the Sonoma County Water Coalition has presented a plan for a desalination plant for the Laguna Santa Rosa treatment plant. It like the Orange County plant could be used to recharge the Santa Rosa Plain Basin instead of sending the water to the Geysers. Before I would be comfortable with such a solution I would first insist on two conditions. As mentioned above the first would be that our planning and building standards be improved. Secondly I, as would most people, would want factual proof that the water would bee free of pharmaceuticals and other micro pollutants. Here is where your argument for comparative energy use is applicable. The Dublin-San Ramon plant gets 65 percent of its needed energy from its off-gassed methane and a fuel cell. With solar cells it could be totally carbon free.

(3) But Marin has options that do not require desalination. Two of our seven reservoirs are not currently being used. There is extensive leakage from the system that we have. And finally the people of MMWD love to conserve, so much so that MMWD has raised the rates 39 percent in recent years. The Fryer Report, found on the Marin Water Coalition website, provides the details.

For mush less than the full $400 million 30 year cost of construction, finance, and operation the same 5 million gallons a day could be had. But that is just the first phase of the proposed desalination plant. Fully developed its 15 mgd would increase the current 24 mgd MMWD water supply by 3/5. That is not drought protection, but an open door to unsustainable development. And that would be truly tying the hands of Marin, preventing the necessary changes that are required for reducing our GHG footprint. Melted ice caps will destroy the Eel and Russian Rivers, San Francisco Bay, and much of California.