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California Supreme Court Rejects Environmental Challenges to Monterey Water Project – America

The $330-Million Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project (MPWSP) took a step forward, as the California Supreme Court recently denied challenges to the sufficiency of the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR)/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The long-awaited desalination plant located off the coast of Monterey is being developed by California American Water Company (CalAm) and is intended to replace the Monterey Peninsula community’s existing Carmel River and Seaside Groundwater Basin supplies.

These supplies have been constrained for decades by legal decisions and habitat concerns, with desalinated seawater.

Desalination: Poseidon still trying to plant its trident into Huntington Beach – California

Southern California was hit with enough rain in 2019 for many experts and observers to declare an end to the region’s most recent drought – which could be bad news for Poseidon Water’s plans to build a desalination plant near land’s edge in Huntington Beach.

It is hard to drum up a lot of noise for water security when we’re not in a drought. The current state of Southern California’s water security – or insecurity – certainly isn’t giving Poseidon any ammunition to make its case for a $1 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

Southern California’s droughts, of course, are cyclical, so the day will come again when Poseidon will be able to play its water insecurity card. A lack of a drought today, just the same, isn’t going to derail Poseidon’s quest to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

Gage: Setting the Record Straight on Seawater Desalination – California

A recent news release posted on the Voice of OC website was clouded by mischaracterizations of the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, which provides an important source of drinking water for San Diego County and reduces our region’s reliance on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta.

The plant is the result of a historic public-private partnership between the San Diego County Water Authority and Poseidon Water to ensure supply reliability for more than 3 million residents across the region.

It helped to ensure that the Water Authority had sufficient water to meet demand during the last drought, and we are confident it will help us weather the next drought … and the one after that.

Oil and gas in New Mexico waste water disposal holds the key

Who could argue with anyone wanting to find environmentally sustainable solutions to treating and reusing the produced water associated with oil and gas development? It is a PR-must for the industry powerhouses who have trillion-dollar stakes in the Permian Basin and need to be seen as responsible corporate citizens.

It is also PR straw-to-gold for certain politicians whose playbook depends on vilifying oil and gas while simultaneously playing a cash-and-spend game with the billion-dollar royalty checks.

Fortunately, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has embraced a more independent and transparent position, as reflected in her recent remarks at the Carlsbad Mayor’s Energy Summit. Among other things, she is supporting a new produced water energy consortium – and is committed to developing a scientifically grounded regulatory environment that reflects viable water reuse policies for industry.

NMSU, consortium partners awarded $100 million grant to tackle nation’s water challenges – New Mexico

New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering is part of a team that was awarded a U.S. Department of Energy five-year, $100 million grant to create the Energy-Water Desalination Hub to address water security issues.

As a member of the National Alliance for Water Innovation team, Pei Xu, the PESCO Endowed Professor and Ward Family Endowed Interdisciplinary Chair in Civil Engineering, is leading NMSU’s effort in the consortium that includes Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and National Energy Technology Laboratory along with 19 founding university partners and 10 founding industry partners.

The grant has a five-year renewal possibility.

Poseidon Water Congratulates the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Team on $100M DOE Desalination Hub – California

Poseidon Water is proud to be part of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Team that was selected to receive $100 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a new Energy-Water Desalination Hub. The Hub’s purpose is to advance state-of-the-art technology and research in desalination.

Poseidon is a national leader in the development of water supply and treatment projects using a public-private partnership approach and manages the award-winning Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant.

Headquartered at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California, NAWI was created in 2017 to support the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy-Water Desalination Hub.

Court asked to nix IDE-Hutchison Sorek B desalination bid – Kansas

4A Desalination Group, which is competing in the tender for construction of the Sorek B desalination plant, today petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to disqualify IDE and Hutchison from participation in the tender.

A public committee headed by Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources director general Ehud (Udi) Adiri suspected fraud in the operation of the Sorek A desalination plant. IDE and Hutchison were part owners of the plant.

The committee was formed following a report by “Globes” that the proportion of salt in the water supplied by the facility was up to four times as high as the standard in the franchise agreement. The committee, which sent its findings to the police, ratified the allegation in the report that the deviations in the proportion of salt were systematic, and had taken place for years.

Rice to play critical role in $100M DOE desalination hub – United States

Rice is a partner in the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), a consortium that won a five-year, $100 million Department of Energy award to establish an Energy-Water Desalination Hub that addresses U.S. water security issues.

NAWI, which includes four national laboratories, 19 universities and 10 industry partners and more than 200 affiliates, is led by and headquartered at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.NAWI will focus on early-stage research and development for energy-efficient and cost-competitive desalination technologies and for treating nontraditional water sources for various uses.

The alliance’s goal is to advance technologies that will secure a circular water economy in which 90% of nontraditional water sources — such as seawater, brackish water and produced water from industry and agriculture — can be cost-competitive with existing water sources within 10 years.

Feds award $100 million to Lawrence Berkeley-led consortium to tap tech for water desalination – California

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory won a five-year, $100 million award to serve as a Department of Energy hub to look at “water security” issues, including energy-efficient and cost-effective desalination technologies.

The money, some of which still must be appropriated by Congress, also includes research into treating nontraditional water sources for a variety of uses.

The award to the National Alliance for Water Innovation led by the Energy Department’s Berkeley Lab and including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, 19 universities and 10 companies

Southeast Florida’s climate challenges are being properly addressed – Florida

No issue is more important to the future of southeast Florida than sea-level rise. However, a recent op-ed on the threat of rising sea levels to water supplies in South Florida included some factual errors and neglected important context.

As resilience officers for the four counties of southeast Florida, we wish to correct and expand the record.

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