Keith R. Solar is a water attorney. He lives in Point Loma.
Californians are no strangers to drought, having lived through many dry periods in the last several decades. The good news is that December storms and previous strong rainfall filled state reservoirs to healthy levels. The bad news is that history shows the good conditions won’t last and worries over water supplies will continue in the coming years.
One need only look to 2015, when California was in one of its most severe droughts on record and Gov. Jerry Brown ordered the first-ever, statewide water reduction requirements aimed at urban Californians. Local reservoirs were depleted, imported supplies were strained and the region faced escalating uncertainty about the stability of its water future.
Interest in desalination had increased substantially in California after severe droughts in the 1970s and late 1980s. The state’s rapidly growing populations and ecosystem degradation from existing water supply sources forced a rethinking of water policies and management.
Desalination, which removes salt from seawater to create quality drinking water, was gaining traction as a viable solution to the region’s drought challenges. Investing in seawater desalination was seen as ambitious, necessary and the responsible thing to do.
Yet it was not without its environmental and cost critics. It took 14 years of permitting, public meetings, planning and litigation before construction began on a desalination plant that today produces 10 percent of San Diego’s water supply.
When the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, owned by Poseidon Water Resources, opened in December of 2015, it assumed an important role in strengthening San Diego’s water security. It has advanced San Diego County’s long-standing goal of reducing dependence on the over-allocated Colorado River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
In a time when Western states are renegotiating water-sharing agreements under increasing stress, the ability to generate a portion of our supply locally offers stability that cannot be overstated.
At full capacity, the plant produces 50 million gallons of drinking water daily. That supply of desalinated water is reliable regardless of drought, shrinking snowpack, below-average rainfall or the normal, expected fluctuations in water resources such as seasonal changes in river flow that impact water availability.
For a region at the end of every major pipeline that has long depended on imported water delivered across hundreds of miles of desert, and which now faces a drier, more uncertain climate, this is a qualitatively different supply of water – a purely local supply that is a critical asset for San Diego.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant, designed by IDE Technologies Ltd., and later sold to Channelside Water Resources, is the largest desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere. IDE, the plant’s operator since day one, has maintained strict water-quality standards and worked closely with regulators and environmental partners to minimize ecological impacts.
While critics point out that desalinated water is more expensive than other water, it is important to note that it is more reliable than other sources. Its value as insurance against disruption of supplies from other sources makes it a critical part of our future.
Desalination has not replaced other strategies. Rather, it is one tool in the toolbox that complements conservation, potable reuse, water recycling, groundwater management and stormwater capture. There is no one silver bullet for our water security, and San Diego needs a little bit of everything to safeguard its water supply. This diversified approach has positioned San Diego as a statewide leader in long-term water planning and reliability.
As the Carlsbad Desalination Plant marks its 10th year of operation, the takeaway is clear: no single project can solve all of California’s water challenges, but strategic investments in locally controlled resources can deliver lasting benefits. The Carlsbad plant stands as a model of how forward-looking infrastructure can contribute to a region’s stability.
San Diegans no longer need to wonder whether desalination would make a meaningful difference. The answer arrives every day, reliably, safely and without regard to weather, through water flowing into homes and businesses across the county.
Although powerful storms in 2024 and 2025 helped ease drought conditions, the past has taught us that the prospect of serious drought conditions will return to San Diego and could become the new, multi-year norm.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant helps San Diego weather these severe water shortages. Let’s not forget why it’s here.
You could probably mention that San Diego’s water from rivers and other sources contains a lot of minerals and when this water is mixed with desalinated water which contains no minerals, we get a more balanced water product.
I agree. San Diego needs to be water independent of the Colorado river and the MWD. This is possible by Desal, Recycling our water, Increased Storage, and Conservation. We here in San Diego have made a good start. Much of SoCal has not. Droughts are a fact of life in the West, we need to complete the job.
Claiming that this desal plant buffers droughts is false. It’s simply does not produce enough water to have much of an impact at all if any. 10%.
We rate pairs are subsidizing this expensive corporate boondoggle by guaranteeing return on their investments with our increased rates they were built in when this was built in order to cover the costs.
Corporate welfare.
It was actually only 5% in 2025, according to County Water Authority’s own data: https://www.sdcwa.org/your-water/
Might be good for VOSD to be a little more transparent here. According to his company website, “On behalf of public and private clients in the water sector, Keith has devoted nearly three decades exclusively to water supply issues, and specializes in desalination and potable reuse.” He is presumably well compensated for promoting desal. And of course, this opinion piece totally ignores the fact that San Diego desal is a major contributor to the oversupply and rapidly rising cost of water in San Diego. There are no doubt plenty of people at the Water Authority who rue the day that the organization promoted desal.
I agree in principal that diversification of regional water sources is important, especially in the face of climate change, and that desalination is one option.
But the author fails to mention the major downside of desalination: the process consumes a lot energy. This is why the water produced continues to be so expensive. And since the source of the energy used is not renewable, desalination also contributes to global warming and climate change.