San Diego's 18-Year Wait to Drink Sea Water May Hinder Deals
- Banker says delays may make investors wary of desalination
- Poseidon Resources envisions West Coast dotted with projects
This article is for subscribers only.
The largest ocean desalination plant ever built in the Western Hemisphere is finally generating drinking water -- and revenue -- 18 years after it was proposed in Southern California. Some investors say it wasn’t worth the wait.
Poseidon Resources Corp. this month will begin commercially desalinating saltwater from the Pacific Ocean at its Carlsbad, California facility, which is designed to supply 50 million gallons of drinking water each day. That’s enough for 7 percent of San Diego County, home to 3.2 million people. A local municipal agency will buy at least 48,000 acre-feet of water from the plant annually under a 30-year contract.