Santa Barbara’s desalination plant got permit approval from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board last week, a major regulatory step for the seawater-to-potable facility.
The Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant has been mothballed since the 1990s, and the city is working to reactivate the facility as part of its long-term water-supply plan.
This permit approval deals with the facility’s discharge into the ocean, which is mixed with wastewater and sent out the same outfall pipe, and the seawater intake.
“It secures our ability to use our screened open ocean intake for the foreseeable future,” interim water resources manager Joshua Haggmark told the City Council on Tuesday.
The city offered three conditions that were then made mandatory by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Mayor Helene Schneider added.
Council members already had asked city staff to study sub-surface intake structures, and now staff will make a presentation on the findings to the water board by July 2017.
The city also agreed to donate $500,000 for a restoration project at the Devereux Slough and use a wedge wire screen on the intake structure, which has 1-millimeter-sized holes, Schneider said.
Santa Barbara renews its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit every five years, including the brine discharge from the desalination plant.
The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board found that Santa Barbara’s plant was “existing,” so it doesn’t have to study alternative intake structures before operation – the city offered to do it, but it’s not a condition of the permit, Haggmark said.
The type of intake structure is often the most controversial part of desalination facilities, due to the potential environmental impacts on marine life.
“As was noted at the (Water Control Board) meeting, the city is still interested in studying alternatives to our screen open-ocean intake, but it is not reasonable to do so if we need desalination to address this drought,” Haggmark said.
Proposals to design, build and operate the desalination plant are due in March, and the city could hear back about getting a state revolving loan in May.
In the regulatory process, the next step is the California Coastal Commission.
It has accepted the 1996 permit to operate the desalination plant, but will be discussing a maintenance and repair permit at next week’s meeting. That permit has to do with resetting the screens and pumps in the ocean and doing maintenance on those screens, Haggmark said.
“This is not a reopener for conditions or approval of our desal plant or the type of intake that we have,” he said.
Coastal Commissioners meet in Pismo Beach next week and will discuss this permit on Feb. 13.
The City Council got an update on the water supply outlook Tuesday as well, hearing that three groundwater wells are back to high production, and the city is pursuing supplemental water purchases.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting above-average rainfall for the next three months, which is a “glimmer of hope” during the drought, Haggmark told the council Tuesday.
Santa Barbara residents have also been conserving water better than expected, with 23-percent cuts for the period of July to December.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.