DeepWater Desal forges ahead with environmental planning.

DeepWater Desal goes deep: at least 70 feet below the surface of Monterey Bay, according to its desalination plant proposal. It’s also gone $4.5 million deep, the company spokesman says, on the science alone – for a project that some say faces pretty long odds.

On June 1, the California State Lands Commission, lead agency for DeepWater’s Monterey Bay Regional Water Project, announced it and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary will jointly prepare the project’s environmental documents. (Public scoping meetings happen this Tuesday; see Public Citizen, this page.)

DeepWater proposes to build a reverse-osmosis desal facility, drawing 55,000 acre-feet of seawater per year from the Monterey Submarine Canyon to produce up to 25,000 acre-feet of drinkable water, discharging the brine through a separate pipe a mile offshore.

DeepWater spokesman David Armanasco says the company has spent the last four years studying the science behind its proposal.

“We wanted to have very comprehensive live testing to determine what was down there,” he says.

The biggest finding, he says, is that most sea life sticks to the ocean’s surface layer, well above DeepWater’s proposed intakes. “The beauty of that canyon is that the water is always upwelling, like a reverse waterfall,” he says, “which makes it a very good, sustainable supply to desalinate.”

Last month, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted new rules for permitting desal operations. The policy prefers subsurface intakes – drawing seawater through the ground, rather than straight from the ocean – unless it’s proven to be unfeasible. Armanasco says in this case, it is.

Carol Reeb, a research associate for Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, is skeptical. “Any proposal featuring open-ocean intakes… will probably be taking the long road toward permitting,” she writes by email.

Three other entities – California American Water, business mogul Nader Agha and Marina Coast Water District – have also proposed to build large desal plants along the same stretch of Highway 1 between Marina and Moss Landing.

Armanasco maintains DeepWater isn’t competing with Cal Am; DeepWater already has agreements to supply the city of Salinas, Castroville Community Services District and Soquel Creek Water District. DeepWater is also Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s backup desal supply in case Cal Am’s project falls through.