The portfolio approach diversifies the sources of the water supplied allowing for a greater level of security, environmental mitigation and overall sustainability. The project involves the following components:
A desalination facility in North Marina that will employ Energy Recovery Devices to lower the plant’s power consumption and slant well technology. Slant wells draw water from under the sea floor, past the average high tide line and avoid the impacts to marine life posed by open ocean intakes. The brine resulting from the desalination process will be discharged to the ocean through the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency’s existing outfall. The plant will be owned and operated by California American Water Company and will require a 10-mile pipeline to deliver water to the Monterey Peninsula.