About Cambria

Washingtonwatch.com tracks the bills in Congress, along with estimates about their costs or savings, when available. They also provide earmark data like the request for Cambria CSD by Lois Capps for $2,000,000 for desalination. Visit the site and make your comments there or here.

This earmark request can be attributed (at least in part) to the work of our lobbyist federal advocate.  Our community has spent a small fortune on this part of the project. How much? Thanks to OpenSecrets.org, it’s easy to find out. OpenSecrets.org is a federal watchdog site that provides information on lobbying expenditures, searchable by client, lobbying firm, individual lobbyist, industry, issue, agency or bill. View the report on Cambria Community Services District here.

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Transparency is our friend, if we know where to look.  Luckily for you, I happen to have a few excellent resources up my sleeve. This year, for the first time, senators and representatives must disclose their earmark requests for budget appropriations every year. Representative Capps’ site notes that she has requested $2 Million for the Fiscal year 2009-10 (Federal Fiscal year begins in October.) Of course, we can’t count that money yet. There are quite a few more hoops we must jump through. I have a request in to Rep. Capps to ask her a few questions about her earmark for Cambria. I will post additional information as I have  it. If you know a shortcut to speaking with Mrs. Capps, (short of hiring a lobbyist), please contact me. amanda at aboutcambria.com

In 2005, the House of Representatives published a report “ DESALINATION WATER SUPPLY SHORTAGE PREVENTION ACT OF 2005″ (Click to read the full report). The report recognized the importance of desalination as a new source of needed water and the cost of the energy consumed in the desalination process. It states that “qualified desalination plants” will be paid 62¢ per thousand gallons (or about $200 per acre foot) of desalinated water produced and sold, adjusted for inflation every year using the method used by the IRS. There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary (of DOE) $200,000,000 to carry out this section from fiscal year 2006 through fiscal year 2016.

Limitations. — In any fiscal year not more than 60 percent of the funds made available by the Secretary under this section shall be made available to the owners or operators of qualified desalination facilities that obtain source water directly from the sea, an estuary, or from in-bank extraction wells that are of seawater origin

Priority.–In awarding incentive payments under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to any application for a project that–

(1) uses innovative technologies to reduce the energy demand of the project;
(2) uses renewable energy supplies in the desalination process;
(3) provides regional water supply benefits;
(4) provides a secure source of new water supplies for national defense activities;
(5) reduces the threat of a water supply disruption as a result of a natural disaster or acts of terrorism;
(6) uses technologies that minimize the damage to marine life; or
(7) provides significant water quality benefits.

The payments would partially offset the cost of electrical energy required for operation. The facility has up to ten years after enactment to submit an application to the Secretary for incentive payments. These incentive payments will then be available up to ten years after the written agreement is finalized.

The financial costs of desalination have gone down fairly significantly over the last 10 years, but little has changed in terms of the environmental costs. Last March, Santa Cruz started up a pilot desalination plant. Four different pre-treatment technologies along with reverse osmosis desalination technology are being tested for at least a year at the facility. The results of the pilot plant operations will be used to define the design requirements, the best pre-treatment process and costs of a full-scale desalination facility.

Although the composition of the sea water Santa Cruz will desalinate is different from the water Cambria would be using, I look forward to hearing the results of their year-long experiment. It could indicate how feasible and expensive a plant here might be.

The issues we face here in Cambria are complex and there are many people whose plans have been on hold for nearly 20 years as Cambria struggles to officially ensure there is enough water for everyone. Even with a board committed to implementing the Water Master Plan, it looks like it’ll be at least four more before lawns can be planted and intent to serve letters are provided to those wanting to build.