The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed today to explore funding for a proposed Catalina Island desalination plant, hoping to stave off water supply cuts that could force Avalon hotels to shut down rooms.
The island’s roughly 4,100 permanent residents and businesses have already cut back water use from 2012 levels by more than 34 percent between August and May, even as the number of visitors was up more than 14 percent, county officials said.
But the shrinking Thompson Reservoir at Middle Ranch is expected to trigger a mandatory 50 percent cut this fall, which Supervisor Don Knabe said could cripple the tourist-driven economy.
“Additional conservation beyond what is currently being done will be difficult, with many businesses such as hotels and camps facing a reduction in availability, which would have a trickle-down effect on both the local and regional economy,” Knabe wrote in a motion recommending the county step in to help.
Southern California Edison District Manager Ron Hite called efforts by residents and businesses to save water “a model for other communities,” pointing out that the islanders can’t make use of easy conservation fixes such as reducing irrigation or flushing toilets less frequently. There’s very little irrigation to begin with and 90 percent of toilets use a saltwater system.
An existing desalination plant on Pebbly Beach, built in 1991 and operated by SCE, provides about 200,000 gallons of water daily to supplement the island’s system of wells and reservoirs. The utility has proposed a second plant to deliver as much as 150,000 gallons each day.
City Council members in Avalon, the only incorporated city on the island, are set to consider a proposal to contribute $500,000 to the plant’s estimated $1.6 million cost.
Avalon City Manager Ben Harvey told residents in an open letter that staffers are reviewing other potential funding sources, including Prop 1 water bonds.
SCE is considering regulatory relief to stall Phase 3 rationing — the 50 percent cuts — while simultaneously managing permits to bring the plant online by mid-September.
Critics of desalination say fish are trapped and killed at plants, and plant discharge over-salinates ocean waters.
However, Hite said the new Catalina plant is designed to use the discharge from the first plant — rather than freshwater — to create a stream of drinkable water. So the new plant would increase the supply of desalinated water by up to 75 percent without significantly increasing the volume of discharge from current levels.
“It doesn’t really have a measurable impact in terms of the environment,” Hite told City News Service.
Harvey pointed out that even a new plant will not solve the island’s long-term water problems.
“It is only a short-term resolve to prevent the onset of Phase 3 water rationing,” Harvey wrote in his letter, suggesting that more wells, reclaimed water and advanced technologies, all employed in a “patchwork quilt” approach, would be needed to assure adequate supplies.
Hite said SCE is working closely with the Santa Catalina Island Co., which controls most of the island’s developable land, on developing a new well.
The Board of Supervisors directed its Public Works director to report back in 30 days on potential funding sources and the resources needed to independently evaluate the island’s water supply system.
— Wire reports