In an update to a project National Driller wrote about in September, California American Water’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project is being granted $1 million from the California Department of Water Resources. 

The installation of the test slant well is expected to cost approximately $4 million. Source: California American Water

“This award provides a direct financial benefit to our customers,” says California American Water President Robert MacLean. “The test well project is not only important for the future of the Monterey Peninsula’s water supply; it also tests technology which is critical to the future of desalination as an alternative water source for our state.”

The Proposition 50 grant will help pay for the installation of a test slant well, expected to cost approximately $4 million. The proposed desalination test well project aims to prove the viability of slanted beach wells.

One million dollars is the maximum award for which the project was eligible.

Proposition 50, the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water and Coastal and Beach Protection Act, is a $3.4 billion bond passed by voters in 2002, which allocates $50 million in grants for brackish water and ocean water desalination projects throughout California.

The slant well project is a multi-sourced approach to solving the Monterey Peninsula’s persistent water shortage and reducing pumping from the Carmel River.

The largest component of the project is a desalination plant that would draw seawater from slant wells that are buried in the sand and which extend beneath the ocean floor. Slant wells, also called “subsurface intakes,” are the preferred technology of California permitting agencies including the State Water Resources Control Board and the California Coastal Commission.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently issued guidelines for desalination projects within the sanctuary and directed any project proponent to pursue subsurface intakes where practical.

California American Water is a subsidiary of American Water Works Company Inc.  that provides water and/or wastewater services to approximately 600,000 people.

American Water Works Company, founded in 1886, is the largest publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company.  With headquarters in Voorhees, N.J., the company provides drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 14 million people in more than 30 states, and parts of Canada.

 For more information, visit www.watersupplyproject.org  and  www.amwater.com.