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Podcasts Take Two
San Diego moves forward with plan to build $1 billion desalination plant
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Jan 4, 2013
Listen • 7:19
San Diego moves forward with plan to build $1 billion desalination plant
Most Americans get their drinking water from fresh water sources like lakes and rivers, or from groundwater drawn from wells. But freshwater supplies are falling at a time when demand is rising.
The new plant cost a billion dollars to build and will deliver about 50 million gallons a day and serve about 400,000 people, which is 8 percent of the region.
This image provided by the San Diego County Water Authority shows an artist rendering of a proposed desalination plant, center right, superimposed over an aerial photograph, in Carlsbad, Calif. The proposed plant will be the Western Hemisphere’s largest desalination plant.
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AP
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Most Americans get their drinking water from fresh water sources like lakes and rivers, or from groundwater drawn from wells. But freshwater supplies are falling at a time when demand is rising.

Most Americans get their drinking water from fresh water sources like lakes and rivers, or from groundwater drawn from wells. 

But freshwater supplies are falling at a time when demand is rising. Now a massive effort is underway in southern California to make drinking water out of something there's plenty of: Sea water.

San Diego water authorities are planning the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. The project's developer closed financing for the nearly $1 billion project just last week. 

With more is Alison St. John, a reporter for PBS in San Diego.