At its October 2024 Executive Committee meeting, the CalDesal Executive Committee unanimously voted to approve the appointments of Mark Lambert (Kiewit Infrastructure) and Scott Maloni (Black & Veatch) as the newest members of the Executive Committee.

Mark has 35 years of experience in the water and wastewater industries, including more than 20 years directly engaged in desalination activities. In addition to actively participating in CalDesal for many years, Mark has also served on the Board of the Texas Desalination Association.

Scott has more than 15 years directly involved in California seawater desalination projects, including direct involvement with the Carlsbad Desalination Plant and the proposed Huntington Beach Desalination Project. Scott has been an industry leader in California desalination, bringing those years of direct on-the-ground experiences to CalDesal’s legislative, administrative, and regulatory engagement and advocacy efforts.

Please congratulate both Mark and Scott on their appointments when you have an opportunity!

On October 28, the State Water Resources Control Board kicked off its new round of amendments to the California Ocean Plan by hosting a public scoping session on proposed amendment concepts. The SWRCB staff outlined a series of 11 specific concepts that are intended for possible Ocean Plan amendments, and invited stakeholders to also elevate concepts for further discussion in the months ahead. CalDesal participated in the public scoping session, providing an overview of several key priority issues that the association will further delineate in its public comment filing that is due by November 13.  

CalDesal members also participated in the public scoping session, and one of CalDesal’s members was spotlighted in a follow-up article in the Politico Climate Report the next day:

WHY NOT JUST DRINK THE OCEAN: California is in the very early stages of making it easier for desalination plants along the coast.

The State Water Resources Control Board took the first step today toward changing its ocean protection standards to make it faster to permit desalination plants and to clarify how and when developers measure and mitigate the harm to marine life. The effort is part of Newsom’s strategy to boost supplies as the climate changes.

Desalination is more expensive than other water supply alternatives, costing twice as much as water recycling, but it appeals to otherwise arid coastal areas willing to experiment with new technology. California currently has three seawater desalination facilities in the planning or permitting phase and eight active desalination facilities.

Jeremy Wolf, the legislative program manager at Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in western Los Angeles County, said at a state-led scoping meeting today he’s particularly interested in how the state can streamline rules for novel pilot technologies, like taking water from deeper in the ocean, that could cut costs and limit environmental damage.

“The No. 1 question our ratepayers are asking is, ‘Why aren’t we implementing desalinization?’” said Wolf. “It’s a complex answer, but we want to be able to tell them that we’re looking into it.” — CvK

The “Notice of Opportunity for Public Comment and Scoping Meeting on Proposed Amendments to the Seawater Desalination Provisions of the Water Quality Control Plan for Ocean Waters of California” can be accessed through this link: Notice of Opportunity for Public Comment and Public Scoping Meeting Seawater Desalination Provisions.

The 2025 CalDesal Annual Conference will be held on February 5-6, 2025, at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, CA. We are very excited about the opportunity to hold our annual conference in Southern California next year, and the CalDesal Events Planning Committee is well into the planning stages to develop relevant, meaningful, and interesting content and programs for the conference. We are also excited to partner with CalDesal member, Eastern Municipal Water District, to plan for a tour of their Perris Desalter facility during the conference.

We expect to open the registration for the 2025 CalDesal Annual Conference soon! Please stay tuned for announcements through our email list distribution, the CalDesal website, and our social media channels. A discounted block of rooms will also be available at the Pechanga Resort during the conference, but those rooms will go fast, so we encourage everyone to register early and reserve your room under the CalDesal conference block.