Current Activities
Demonstration Project
In June 2005, West Basin was awarded approximately $1.7 million for its desalination program by the California Department of Water Resources under Proposition 50. The goal of West Basin’s Temporary Ocean-Water Desalination Demonstration Project is to conduct research and develop data for the permitting, design, construction, and operation of West Basin’s proposed full-scale desalination facility. In contrast to the Pilot Project, West Basin’s Demonstration Facility will utilize limited quantities of full-scale equipment to refine operating parameters, perform additional water quality testing, evaluate source intake methodologies, and assess energy efficiency. West Basin’s temporary Demonstration project will be constructed in, and adjacent to, an existing pump house at the L.A. Conservation Corps’ SEA Lab facility in Redondo Beach, on a fully developed urban site previously used by Southern California Edison and AES Corporation.
Source water intake:
One of the primary purposes of the Demonstration project is to utilize intake technologies that protect marine life. The proposed intake is approximately .55 million gallons per day (MGD) of ocean-water from the Pacific Ocean via an existing concrete pipeline previously used for electricity production operations. The existing pipe is 144 inches in diameter. However, the Demonstration project will require an 8-inch pipe to be installed inside the existing concrete pipe, utilizing a pipe-in-pipe concept. The pipeline extends from a wet well located beneath the SEA Lab facility to approximately 1,600 feet offshore, outside of King Harbor. The pipeline is essentially abandoned and unused, except for a negligible amount of ocean-water pumped from the wet well by SEA Lab for use in their aquariums and seawater tanks. At the seaward end of the proposed intake pipeline will be a state-of-the-art passive wedgewire screen designed to minimize impingement and entrainment impacts to marine biological resources. Sourcewater would travel at a rate of .5 feet per second (FPS) or less to further minimize impingement and entrainment.
Subsurface seawater intake:
As an initial step in evaluating subsurface intake feasibility for desalination, a test bed will be installed on-shore at the temporary Demonstration facility. The test bed will mimic natural filtration characteristics utilizing ocean-water pumped through a second pipeline. To simulate seafloor conditions, intake velocities in the subsurface test bed will be well below the .5 FPS for the proposed source water intake pipeline.
Partners:
American Water Works Research Foundation- Association of California Water Agencies
- California Avocado Growers
- California Department of Water Resources
- Calleguas Municipal Water District
- East Bay Municipal Utility District
- Long Beach Water Department
- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
- Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- Municipal Water District of Orange County
- National Water Research Institute
- Poseidon Resources Inc.
- San Diego County Water Authority
- Tampa Bay Water
- United Bureau of Reclamation