California American Water’s desalination test well project will receive a $1-million Proposition 50 grant by the California Department of Water Resources.
The grant will help pay for the installation of a $4-million slant test well, which will prove the feasibility of beach wells as feed-water for the company’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.
Proposition 50, the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water and Coastal and Beach Protection Act, is a $3.4 billion bond, which offers $50 million grants for brackish and ocean water desalination projects.
This award benefits the customers directly with its financial ease, as the test well project is important for the future of the Monterey Peninsula’s water supply. The technology is critical to the future of desalination as an alternative water source, said, Robert MacLean, president, California American Water.
The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project is a multi-sourced methodology to solve the Monterey Peninsula’s perennial water shortage.
During this project, the desalination plant takes seawater from slant wells buried in the sand extending beneath the ocean floor. Slant wells are the approved technology by State Water Resources Control Board and the California Coastal Commission.