COMMITTEE AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Environmental and Water Resources Committee
Government Code § 84308 Applies: Yes ? No ?
(If “YES” Complete Attachment A – Gov. Code § 84308)
SUBJECT: title
Receive an Update on the Desalination Engineering Feasibility Study.
End
RECOMMENDATION: Recommendation
Receive an update on the Desalination Engineering Feasibility Study.
Body
SUMMARY:
This memorandum provides an update on the Desalination Engineering Feasibility Study (DEFS). Since the last update to the Environmental and Water Resources Committee (EWRC) on January 26, 2026, Valley Water has completed the draft final DEFS and will present the findings to date.
BACKGROUND
Valley Water (VW) continues to assess desalination as a potential future water supply source and in 2023, completed the Desalination Environmental Feasibility and Planning Study (DEFPS), which identified intake options, facility locations, and brine management strategies. These elements formed the foundation for the DEFS currently underway. Building on the conclusions of the DEFPS, the current work is focused on evaluating additional siting locations, intake options, brine management and conveyance options. The following sections present the findings from recent efforts including the alternatives analysis, preliminary cost estimates for various alternatives and provides an update on outreach efforts with stakeholders, interested parties and regulators.
STUDY APPROACH
The DEFS evaluated the feasibility of a treatment facility with a production capacity of 10 to 40 million gallons per day (MGD) with the feed source from the Lower South San Francisco Bay (LSB). The four major components evaluated include bay-water intake, facility siting, brine management and conveyance for distribution. As discussed in January, the study approach included evaluating various options for each component and screening first for fatal flaws, then screening based on a multi-variable scoring framework.
FEASIBLE ALTERNA...
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