Item 27 - Water Supply Assessment for Cabrillo Town Center Project

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Santa Ana 2020 Urban Water Management Plan arcadis.com 6-30 Brackish groundwater is groundwater with a salinity higher than freshwater, but lower than seawater. Brackish groundwater typically requires treatment using desalters. 6.7.1 Ocean Water Desalination Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Project – Poseidon Resources LLC (Poseidon), a private company, is developing the Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Project to be co-located at the AES Power Plant in the City of Huntington Beach along Pacific Coast Highway and Newland Street. The proposed project would produce up to 50 MGD (56,000 AFY) of drinking water to provide approximately 10% of Orange County’s water supply needs. Over the past several years, Poseidon has been working with OCWD on the general terms and conditions for selling the water to OCWD. OCWD and MWDOC have proposed a few distribution options to agencies in Orange County. The northern option proposes the water be distributed to the northern agencies closer to the plant within OCWD’s service area with the possibility of recharging/injecting a portion of the product water into the OC Basin. The southern option builds on the northern option by delivering a portion of the product water through the existing OC-44 pipeline for conveyance to the south Orange County water agencies. A third option is also being explored, which includes all of the product water to be recharged into the OC Basin. Currently, a combination of these options could be pursued. The Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination project plant capacity of 56,000 AFY would be the single largest source of new, local drinking water available to the region. In addition to offsetting imported demand, water from this project could provide OCWD with management flexibility in the OC Basin by augmenting supplies into the Talbert Seawater Barrier to prevent seawater intrusion. In May 2015, OCWD and Poseidon entered into a non-binding Term Sheet that provided the overall partner structure in order to advance the project. Based on the initial Term Sheet, which was updated in 2018, Poseidon would be responsible for permitting, financing, design, construction, and operations of the treatment plant while OCWD would purchase the production volume, assuming the product water quality and quantity meet specific contract parameters and criteria. Furthermore, OCWD would then distribute the water in Orange County using one of the proposed distribution options described above. Currently, the project is in the regulatory permit approval process with the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Coastal Commission. Once all of the required permits are approved, Poseidon will then work with OCWD and interested member agencies in developing a plan to distribute the water. Subsequent to the regulatory permit approval process, and agreement with interested parties, Poseidon estimates that the project could be online as early as 2027. Under guidance provided by DWR, the Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Plant’s projected water supplies are not included in the supply projections due to its current status within the criteria established by State guidelines (DWR, 2020c). Doheny Desalination Project – South Coast Water District (SCWD) is proposing to develop an ocean water desalination facility in Dana Point. SCWD intends to construct a facility with an initial capacity of up to 5 million gallons per day (MGD). The initial up to 5 MGD capacity would be available for SCWD and potential partnering water agencies to provide a high quality, locally-controlled, drought-proof water supply. The desalination facility would also provide emergency backup water supplies, should an earthquake, system shutdown, or other event disrupt the delivery of imported water to the area. The