Partnership to explore harvesting fresh water from raw sources

OceanWell and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) recently announced their partnership to pilot California’s first-ever Blue Water farm.  The public/private partnership will research an environment-first approach that addresses the increasing concern of water scarcity and reliability. Blue Water is fresh water harvested from the deep ocean or other raw water sources.

This, first-of-its-kind project, will test OceanWell’s proprietary water purification technology to produce safe, clean drinking water without the environmental impacts of traditional coastal desalination methods.

“We are excited to embark on this cutting-edge initiative with OceanWell,” said David Pedersen, LVMWD general manager in a statement. “Providing clean, healthy, and consistent water to our customers is the most important function of our water utility. Researching new technology can help us ensure a more sustainable and reliable water future.”

This partnership aims to establish the first-ever Blue Water farm by using OceanWell’s state-of-the-art submerged filtration technology that revolutionizes the process of supplying fresh drinking water from any raw water source, including the ocean. Blue Water farms use water pressure at depths of over 1,000 feet to drive the reverse osmosis process, while safeguarding marine life and protecting delicate aquatic ecosystems. The system is reliable, low energy, scalable and minimizes the need for onshore facilities and the associated environmental impacts.

“After seven years of research and technological development, we are proud to present OceanWell as a sustainable, reliable, and environmentally friendly source of fresh water,” said Robert Bergstrom, OceanWell’s founder and CEO.

The pilot project will start testing the state-of-the-art technology in the District’s Las Virgenes Reservoir in the City of Westlake Village.