The Carlsbad Desalination Project has been operating as a pilot plant since early 2003 and is already producing about 40,000 gallons per day of drinking water. The pilot plant is also being used to conduct studies of potential impacts to offshore reefs and marine life when the salty residual water left over from the desalination process is released into the ocean.

Over the course of the last four years, Project Team has developed sufficient information to conclude that the proposed Project could be constructed and operated in an environmentally responsible manner. The City of Carlsbad is in the process of preparing a Project EIR, subject to public review, certification, and approval by the City Council, that would provide independent verification that the Project can be implemented in a fashion the completely avoids or mitigates all significant environmental impacts.

We invite you to click on the link below to read more about the steps Poseidon is taking to protect the environment and minimize the impact of desalination on coastal waters.

Read More Here

Protection of the Marine Environment. From an environmental management perspective, the biggest challenge with any large-scale seawater desalination project is finding a means of disposing of the concentrated seawater byproduct in a manner that is both responsible and sustainable. The proposed project has been sited and designed to effectively address this potential problem by returning the concentrate from the Desalination Facility to the continuous flow of cooling water exiting the power plant. The combined flow would enter the Pacific Ocean through the existing discharge channel west of the power station.

Numerous studies were conducted over the course of four years to determine how the discharge from the desalination plant would mix with the cooling water discharge from the power plant and disperse in the marine environment. Nationally recognized authorities on coastal zone hydrodynamics and marine biology from Scripps Institute of Oceanography assessed the impact of the increased salinity after the byproduct from the desalination process is returned to the cooling water discharge channel. In comparing the existing Encina Power Station discharge with the proposed combined discharge from Encina Power Station and the desalination facility, marine scientists found:

• Under typical operating conditions, the mixing with the cooling water in the discharge pond ensures that the increase in salinity is always less than 10 percent above ambient.
• The increase in concentration would be less than 1 percent outside the "Zone of Initial Dilution" set forth in the NPDES permit for the Encina Power Station.
• The combined discharge will result in receiving water salinities that are within the natural range of variability for all proposed operating conditions and will comply with all applicable State and Federal receiving water quality requirements.
• The area affected by the existing thermal discharge from the Encina Power Station will be reduced by 50 percent due to removal of a portion of the thermal load and improved mixing of the combined discharge.
• For these reasons, the marine biologists concluded that the proposed Project would not have a significant effect on kelp, benthic species, or fish species.

A separate study was conducted to assess the potential impact the Desalination Facility may have on source water populations of marine organisms. Based on bi-weekly samples collected over a six-month period, the marine scientists found that the incremental effect of the Desalination Facility on source water population entrainment losses was 0.13 percent. From this the scientists concluded that such a loss of marine organisms due to Desalination Facility entrainment would have no effect on the species' ability to sustain their populations because it is such a small fraction of the overall population and because of their widespread distribution and high reproductive potential.