In October 2012, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) presented, in a feature from its August/September 2012 magazine issue, the Bay Area Regional Desalination Project (BARDP) in California. The largest water agencies in the San Francisco region had joined forces in it to assess regional responses to water scarcity. Alongside desalination, recycled water and conservation were also under review. The headline put a decision about nine months away. The feature contrasted the project with the litigation-laden search for a regional scheme on the Monterey peninsula.
The feature showed that large Californian utilities in 2012 were assessing desalination jointly, treating it as one option alongside recycled water and conservation.