Regional Brackish Water Desalination Feasibility Study

West Coast Basin, southern Los Angeles County, California
Client: Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD)
Kestrel Consulting’s Role:  Grant proposal for Proposition 1 Desalination Grant
Total Project Cost: $2 million
Duration: 2017 – present

Kestrel Consulting helped the Water Replenishment District secure a Proposition 1 Desalination Grant for $1 million to support the development of a Feasibility Study. The purpose of the study is to identify the Project Alternative that will create a new potable water supply within the West Coast Basin and reclaim groundwater storage capacity by removing a saline plume. Currently 600,000 AF of groundwater in the Basin cannot be pumped for potable use because of salinity. Severe historical overdraft of the basin caused over 600,000 acre-feet of high-chloride brackish water to intrude into the coastal sandy drinking water aquifers. Seawater intrusion has been halted with the use of injection barriers, but a large plume of high-salinity water remains. As a result, water must be imported to meet the demand, and capacity for groundwater storage is constrained. A feasibility study will examine desalination alternatives for addressing a large saline plume in order to create a new potable water supply in the West Coast Basin and reclaim groundwater storage capacity. A saline plume of this magnitude (600,000 AF) could sustain a 20,000 AFY facility for a useful life of 30 years, which is approximately 20 million gallons per day of new potable water supplies in the Los Angeles area.