| July 14, 1998 --
Preserving coastal property as a potential site for a future seawater desalination plant,
Metropolitan Water District's board of directors today agreed to partner with the city of
Oxnard in purchasing more than 300 acres of vacant land near Ormond Beach. "This
acquisition merely holds our options open until technology makes it feasible to desalt
ocean water," said Metropolitan General Manager John R. Wodraska. "This property
is one of the relatively few available coastal sites remaining within our
5,200-square-mile service area that is advantageously located next to a power plant."
An agreement between Metropolitan, the city and its Community Development Commission
calls for the district and Oxnard to jointly acquire a 308-acre site adjacent to Ormond
Beach from Irvine-based NM Homes Two, LLC, for $10.2 million. Following the purchase,
Metropolitan and the city will maintain the alliance by agreeing to jointly manage the
property.
Under the agreement, at least 20 acres of the purchased property will be set aside to
be exclusively owned and controlled by Metropolitan for the potential development of a
seawater desalination plant. The MWD lands would be located next to a former Southern
California Edison power plant that could be the energy source for the desalination
operation.
"Working cooperatively with the city will allow Metropolitan to obtain immediate
feedback and input should the district move ahead with plans to build a desalination
project in the future," Wodraska said. "In the meantime, we will continue to
evaluate other coastal property suitable for desalination opportunities."
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Although
Metropolitan and Oxnard have no definitive to use or develop the remaining property, the
district and the city plan to explore and evaluate all opportunities, Wodraska said. Metropolitan
will finance its share of the purchase with proceeds from the May 1996 sale of its Bolsa
Chica property in Orange County, which the district originally acquired with plans to
build an ocean water desalination plant. Metropolitan declared the Bolsa Chica property,
purchased in February 1974, as surplus after environmental and economic studies determined
a plant at that location was no longer feasible.
Traditional methods of desalting seawater have previously been too expensive for
Southern California to use on a widespread basis. Metropolitan, however, has been
developing a distillation process that reduces desalination costs by more than 50 percent.
Most recently, Metropolitan has joined an international consortium of firms working to
further the development and commercialization of the multi-effect seawater desalination
process.
The Metropolitan Water District is a regional water agency that imports water from
Northern California and the Colorado River, and delivers it on a wholesale basis to the
coastal plain of Southern California. Through its 27 member public agencies, the
district provides almost 60 percent of the water used by nearly 16 million people living
in portions of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Nan Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura
counties.
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