Power Plant may have to help in Californian drought
Desperation for a new water supply due to droughts in California has lead the San Luis Obispo Counter Supervisors to approach the PG&amp;E&rsquo;s Diablo Canyon Power Plant.&nbsp; The company can produce nearly a million gallons of water a day but this has only been available for internal use so far.&nbsp; The plan is to buy 60% of this hopefully non-contaminated water from PG&amp;E, which is critically needed in the short term.&nbsp; It is not clear how much this will cost residents and businesses in the region.
"We could pump this to a treatment facility or build a separate treatment facility here and tie it into other existing water systems," says Jones.

"This is an opportunity to create new water and to get us water that we critically need in the short term and for the long term as well," says San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill.

"We never want to see our CAL FIRE guys or our city fire guys having to deal with not having enough water," says Hill.

San Luis Obispo County Supervisors are looking to the only new water source in the county, the desalination plant at PG&E's Diablo Canyon Power Plant.operating for the past 30 years. However, the drinkable water it is making, is only used at the power plant."It is our drinking water, it is the water we use in the kitchen, we operate it in the plant, it is all the water we use on site," says Tom Jones, who oversees the desal facility at the power plant. "The water started in the Pacific, went through our water treatment plant -- it is a water desalination facility.The harsh drought leaving a dry mark on the state, officials say this water can be used for much more than the plant's uses.In the state of California, this is the largest operating desalination plant that can produce up to one million gallons of water a day, butHill does not want that extra water to go waste. He says his plan is to buy the extra 60 percent from PG&E.With the depleting reservoirs, time is of the essence."It would be a couple months to a year or two," says Jones. "We would have to construct a pipeline from Diablo Canyon to the front gate which is about seven and a half miles,County officials say the first priority areas are the South County basins. Next would be the Los Osos area. Eventually, the county's goal is to expand the desal plant to be able to sell the water to neighboring counties.It is not clear how much that water would cost residents or how much the county would spend on the project.