 |
Re: De-salinization plants are probably on their way in
Author: mook
Date: 07-19-2014 - 16:48
On the other hand, the No-Growth party of protest has shut down a proposal for a small desal plant in Santa Cruz (a place that needs it, desperately, even in good times), and for reactivating an old plant (which operated only for a short time, but is still there) in Santa Barbara (another place that desperately needs one).
Why do they need desal plants? Both places are dependent mostly (in Santa Cruz' case, entirely) on local supplies that are likely to go dry by the end of the season. In Santa Barbara's case, they built a plant during the last big drought, but it cost a lot to run and shortly after it began operating the rain started. Hence mothballs. Santa Cruz is in worse shape - huge residential growth over the last 30 years (since the last drought) but no growth in water supplies. So they have the most stringent water rationing in the state right now (of urban areas, anyway), and if it doesn't rain early they might still run out. Perhaps the desal plant could be recast as the ultimate sewer plant (like the town in Texas that's now drinking its wastewater) - would serve them right.
I once lived in the Santa Cruz area (for a job, not UCSC), but left many years ago. It's still a nice place to visit (with tolerance generator at capacity). They do have interesting trains (revisited Roaring Camp for the first time in decades recently; is Swanton Pacific still around?). Don't inhale, Bill. The traffic is horrible (No-Growth includes no significant improvement to roads and little even to transit, though they did at least save the rail line, for now). Has become too expensive to live west of Watsonville for anybody but those who have been there forever (bought before the run-up or inherited), the filthy rich (mostly from Silicon Valley), students on a loan or family dole, and the homeless who don't worry about such things.
Why do they need desal plants? Both places are dependent mostly (in Santa Cruz' case, entirely) on local supplies that are likely to go dry by the end of the season. In Santa Barbara's case, they built a plant during the last big drought, but it cost a lot to run and shortly after it began operating the rain started. Hence mothballs. Santa Cruz is in worse shape - huge residential growth over the last 30 years (since the last drought) but no growth in water supplies. So they have the most stringent water rationing in the state right now (of urban areas, anyway), and if it doesn't rain early they might still run out. Perhaps the desal plant could be recast as the ultimate sewer plant (like the town in Texas that's now drinking its wastewater) - would serve them right.
I once lived in the Santa Cruz area (for a job, not UCSC), but left many years ago. It's still a nice place to visit (with tolerance generator at capacity). They do have interesting trains (revisited Roaring Camp for the first time in decades recently; is Swanton Pacific still around?). Don't inhale, Bill. The traffic is horrible (No-Growth includes no significant improvement to roads and little even to transit, though they did at least save the rail line, for now). Has become too expensive to live west of Watsonville for anybody but those who have been there forever (bought before the run-up or inherited), the filthy rich (mostly from Silicon Valley), students on a loan or family dole, and the homeless who don't worry about such things.
