A Small Plant at NPS

It’s apparently the hot new thing to propose a seawater desalination plant for the Monterey Peninsula. You know, a little something around a billion dollars to suck up enormous quantities of ocean water, turn it into drinking water and vomit the brine back into the sea. The Big Three have gotten the most press attention this year – failed river steward Cal Am’s Water Supply Project, moody brainiac Brent Constantz’ DeepWater Desal and clock-collector Nader Agha’s People’s Moss Landing Project – but we remember one idea that sort of faded into the fog: a humble, relatively small desal plant at the site of an old Naval Postgraduate School facility. We’re not so naive as to think Cal Am can replace Carmel River water with non-desal measures like conservation and water recycling alone. But they can certainly help bring the scale, and the cost, waaaay down – while putting the plant where it belongs, in public hands on the Peninsula proper.