Huge California desalination plant faces key test

SAN DIEGO—An effort to build the Western Hemisphere's largest seawater desalination plant faces a key test as San Diego's regional water agency decides whether to buy all its output despite criticism that cheaper alternatives may be overlooked.
The San Diego County Water Authority board on Thursday will consider a 30-year contract to buy the water from Poseidon Resources LLC, which needs the deal to move ahead with plans to sell bonds that would pay for more than 80 percent of $984 million project. The plant in Carlsbad would produce 50 million gallons of highly purified drinking water a day, enough to supply about 8 percent of the region in 2020." By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press. Read the full AP article.