And, a special thanks to our Spring Mixer sponsors, without whom we would not be able to support the development of such a great event:

• Mesa Water District
• UA Local Union 250 Pipefitters
• Pipefitters District Council 16
• South Coast Water District
• Kimley-Horn
• Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
• Hazen and Sawyer
• Water Wrights

We are extremely pleased to introduce the CalDesal community to several new members of our growing family. 

Montecito Water District has joined CalDesal as a Regular Member of the organization, which includes a voting seat on the Board of Directors. Montecito Water District is a retail water supplier in Santa Barbara County, and has a 50-year water supply agreement with the City of Santa Barbara that relies upon the Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant to provide drought-resilient water supplies.

Waterise has joined CalDesal as an Associate Member of the organization. Waterise is on the cutting edge of advancing offshore and subsea desalination.

SeaWell has joined CalDesal as an Associate Member of the organization. SeaWell is also advancing innovative offshore desalination through the deployment of floating seawater conversion buoys.

Black & Veatch has joined CalDesal as an Associate Member of the organization. Black & Veatch is well known throughout the broader water community as a leader in engineering, procurement, consulting, and construction.

Welcome to all of our new members! Please introduce yourselves to our new members when you have an opportunity.

On June 5, CalDesal submitted a comprehensive comment letter on the Department of Water Resources’ development of its Resource Management Strategy for Desalination as part of its ongoing work to update the California Water Plan.

CalDesal’s comments focused on three overarching themes:

• Balance: CalDesal believes that greater attention needs to be brought to balancing issues and impacts associated with desalination with perspectives associated with the benefits and values that desalination can achieve.
• Bigger Picture: CalDesal believes that a broader view of California’s overall water resilience and climate adaptation framework needs to be brought into the analysis of desalination as a water resilience strategy. Examining the bigger picture of water resilience throughout California and the southwestern United States can play a role in better understanding the opportunities, options, and considerations for desalination as a water supply alternative in our state.
• Beyond Conventional Desalination: While the RMS focuses greatly on conventional seawater and brackish desalination opportunities and options, the RMS largely misses the opportunity to spotlight emerging technologies and innovations, particularly within the context of offshore desalination, which has a significantly growing presence in California and promises near-term opportunities to rapidly expand distributed desalination benefits for California communities.

CalDesal’s written comments can be found here.

A Call for Abstracts for the CalDesal 2024 Annual Conference will be coming soon! Planning is well under way for our February 2024 CalDesal Annual Conference, and within the next three weeks, we will be issuing the official Call for Abstracts for the conference.

The CalDesal Events Planning Committee encourages you to begin thinking about submittal of abstracts within these broadly-outlined categories:  

• Desalination technology innovations and advancements
• Brine and concentrate management strategies and concepts
• Ocean water desalination projects and technologies
• Brackish water desalination projects and technologies
• Tackling myths related to desalination
• Renewable energy applications for desalination
• Reducing the desalination carbon footprint
• Clarifying mitigation obligations for desalination projects
• Cost, rate structures, and funding for desalination projects
• Desalination and disadvantaged communities
• Permitting/regulatory considerations (e.g., sea level rise, establishing “need”) 
• Management innovations and opportunities for desalination project design, construction, and operation
• And more

Please keep your eyes open for the official Call for Abstracts for the CalDesal 2024 Annual Conference!