In December 2020, the Orange County Register reported that the desalination plant planned near Doheny State Beach, in its 20th year of planning, was slipping again. Instead of water from 2021, obtaining all permits by late 2021 now counted as success. The South Coast Water District commissioned new cost, energy and hydrogeology studies and examined a smaller plant of 2 million gallons a day (about 7,600 m³/day). The 5-million-gallon-a-day option (about 18,900 m³/d) was estimated at 120 to 130 million US dollars, the smaller one at 70 to 75 million.
The report showed how a small public desalination project on the California coast remained stuck between permits, cost questions and energy demand, despite federal and state grants already approved.
Source: Orange County Register