News
City wants desalination looked at for Saltworks
Palo Alto Daily Post
Redwood City wanted a desalination plant included among options to supply water for the proposed 12,000-home Saltworks project, a senior vice president for developer DMB said yesterday.
"Desalination remains both scientifically and politically volatile," David Smith said, citing a successful legal challenge in Marin County to the environmental review of such a project there.
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The city in 2011 engaged a consultant to review desalination but work was put on hold when Arizona-based DMB sought more time to consider public comments about Saltworks.
Dan Ponti, spokesman for Saltworks opponent Redwood City Neighbors United, said the desalination option shows the challenges Saltworks faces.
"It's very expensive," Ponti said of desalination. "It's very energy intensive." "There are a lot of environmental concerns" about what is done with the salt extracted from the water, he said.
A 2003 review for the city by consultants Kennedy/Jenks concluded that issues including costs and environmental requirements meant desalination was not an option for immediate resolution of the Redwood City water supply needs...
(The above article segment was published in the Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012 edition of the Palo Alto Daily Post. You can view and purchase the full article in the Daily Post's archives at http://www.padailypost.com/)
