AWWA MTC69668

The Santa Cruz Water Department and the Soquel Creek Water District have formed the scwd² Task Force to evaluate reverse osmosis seawater desalination. Both agencies, which are located in Santa Cruz County, California, have identified seawater desalination as the most reliable, flexible and overall best option for addressing shortfalls from existing water sources. If seawater desalination is implemented, a full-scale plant would be designed to produce up to 2.5 million gallons per day of permeate. This paper briefly describes the scwd² seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination pilot-scale study, provides background on algal toxins of concern along the Pacific Coast of California, information on local discharges, and presents results from the pilot testing on the occurrence and removal of algal toxins, steroids and pharmaceuticals during Pacific Ocean Seawater Desalination.