California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
The San Diego County Water Authority will enter into an agreement with Poseidon Resources (Channelside) LP to make major upgrades to the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, as required by the state’s Ocean Plan Amendment.
Upgrades to the seawater intake and discharge facilities will cost an estimated $274 million, financed in part through California tax exempt bonds and a low-interest loan from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, a federal credit program for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
The desal plant’s intakes were originally configured to draw seawater from the Encina Power Station’s once-through-cooling system. That system was phased out by the state, and the power station shut down in December 2018. Its closure led to temporary intake-discharge operations at the desalination plant until new fish-friendly dilution pumps came online in 2020.
The final phase of construction is anticipated to take two years and includes:
- New dual-flow screen system and ancillary systems supported on a new concrete access bridge including piles, pile bents, and access ramps
- Dual-flow spray wash system which includes pumps, piping, and nozzles
- Screen debris removal/management system
- Floating debris boom system
- Large organism exclusion system
- New electrical building to house motor controls, variable speed drives, and other controls
- Instrumentation and controls required for the Permanent Modifications
- Connecting piping between the existing intake tunnel and the existing intake pump station
- Abandonment of the generation station intake and discharge tunnel portions no longer needed to support operations
