Edison International
05/17/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/17/2022 11:29
Celebrating 30 Years of Quenching Catalina’s Thirst
Famously lauded in 1958 by the Four Preps as a romantic destination "26 miles across the sea," Santa Catalina Island is unique among communities in Southern California Edison's service area: it's the only place where SCE provides electricity, water and gas to customers.
And though the quartet noted Catalina has "water all around it everywhere," persistent drought means there's not nearly enough to drink for the island's 4,000 full-time residents and nearly 1 million annual visitors. As a result, "desalination on Catalina is more important than ever," said Ron Hite, SCE's senior manager for Catalina.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of SCE's first desalination plant on the island. The desalination process strips salt out of ocean water from two underground saltwater beach wells to make it drinkable. It was a developing technology in 1992 when Edison built the first ocean-water-to-drinking-water plant on the West Coast, one of the prototypes not just for California but for the entire country.
SCE built a second Catalina desalination plant in 2016, using newer technology that has increased desalinated water production to all-time highs, breaking production records in 2020 and again last year.
"The second plant is highly efficient, producing twice the water using the same amount of energy as the first," said Hite. As part of the next phase of desalination enhancement, SCE targets improving desalination production by 80% with the addition of a third well. The third well would let the treatment plant operate at a higher capacity.
Before the desalination plants, Catalina relied entirely on groundwater and the water collected in reservoirs from sparse seasonal rains for its drinking water. The island would resort to bringing additional drinking water in by barge during significant droughts, while residents and businesses have endured strict water rationing.
"Tourism on the island - its main economic driver - is dependent on having reliable water sources despite the drought cycles that have affected the island for the past 30 years," said Ann Marshall, mayor of Avalon, Catalina's only city. SCE built the first desalination plant in response to the development of the nearby Hamilton Cove condominiums and the drought in the late 1980s.
Today, we're producing as much as 160 gallons per minute, which helps combat climate change and drought impacts on the community. One of the great benefits of desalination is that it's a drought-resistant resource. In addition, the filtration process makes economic and environmental sense."
"Today, we're producing as much as 160 gallons per minute, which helps combat climate change and drought impacts on the community," said Frank Beach, SCE's senior supervisor of water and gas utilities on Catalina. "One of the great benefits of desalination is that it's a drought-resistant resource. In addition, the filtration process makes economic and environmental sense."
SCE recently entered into grant funding agreements with the California Department of Water Resources, which will reimburse costs totaling $12.3 million toward desalination enhancement projects, helping save money for customers.