FINAL REPORT Evaluation of Seawater Desalination Projects ...

EVALUATION OF SEAWATER DESALINATION PROJECTS
PROPOSED FOR THE MONTEREY PENINSULA
300 constituents, which included pesticides and other agricultural runoff constituents, as
regulated under the California Ocean Plan and the state and federal Safe Drinking Water
Acts. Poseidon Resources concluded from the testing program that pesticides and
agricultural runoff will not be a factor. The data provided by Poseidon Resources do not
support this conclusion.
Comment 5. The following footnote was added to the report.
In a June 28, 2006 email, Poseidon Resources stated that product water quality control is
critical to the success of the MBRSDP. It intends to follow protocols developed as part of
comprehensive studies developed for other California Poseidon Resources desalination plants
for the MBRSDP.
Comment 6. In a June 28, 2006 email, Poseidon Resources stated that the representation of
Tampa Bay Desalination project was not accurate. Poseidon Resources states that Tampa
Bay Water exercised its option to purchase the project from Poseidon Resources when
construction was 30 percent complete. At the time, according to Poseidon, the project was
on schedule, within budget, would have been completed according to design, and would have
met performance specifications. Furthermore, it states that testimony of water agency staff
and outside experts confirm these conclusions and that these conclusions are part of the
public record. Poseidon correctly states that Tampa Bay Water bought out their interests
during construction, not after operational failure. Also, Poseidon contends that field design
changes caused the failure of the plant. However, any determination that the plant would
have operated successfully if Poseidon had retained control through the end of construction is
conjecture. It is the understanding of the GEI Consultants/Separation Process/Malcolm-
Pirnie team that independent reviews following the failure recommended major pretreatment
process changes in order to achieve design performance criteria. Furthermore, Tampa Bay
Water staff may have indicated that Poseidon design met specifications at the time of the
purchase; however, they did not choose to retrofit the plant to the original Poseidon design
following the failure. Doubt remains today whether there is much confidence in the
Poseidon design.
Response to Poseidon Resources Comments, Dated July 14, 2006
Comment 1. The O&M costs for the Local CWP were included in the CAW report Draft-
Conceptual Design Report (2005). The O&M costs for regional CWP were included in the
RFB Consulting report, Coastal Water Project – A Water Supply Solution for our Coastal
Communities – Volume 1 – Draft – Preliminary Project Description. The O&M costs for
local CWP were prepared in 2005 dollars with an annual cost of $8.84M. The O&M costs
for the regional CWP were prepared in 2004 dollars with an annual cost $10.484M. The
regional CWP O&M costs include avoided annual costs of $1.046M and the cost estimates
do not include the costs of operating the Tarpy Flats pumping facilities. Additional data were
not available for updating these costs.
Monterey Peninsula Water Management District A-2