Pendleton Could Help Provide County With Water

Now that the long-debated Carlsbad desalination plant has cleared its final hurdle, regional officials are exploring the idea of building a second, much larger plant on Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base that would make the region significantly less dependent on outside water sources, the North County Times reported.

Together, desalination plants at Carlsbad and the base could supply close to 40 percent of San Diego County's water within a decade.

That would be a dramatic reversal from the situation today: Nearly three-fourths of the region's supply is piped in by Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District from Northern California and the Colorado River, according to the paper.

However, conservation groups are worried about the environmental side effects of making drinking water by taking salt out of sea water. And opponents say they intend to continue fighting the Carlsbad project in the courts, even though the proponents have secured all of their required permits.

The San Diego County Water Authority, the region's primary water supplier, is poised to ask its board next month to spend $5.7 million over the next two years to study whether it is feasible and cost-effective to build a plant in the southwest corner of Camp Pendleton.