Press Releases

MOSS LANDING, CALIF. – Brent Constantz, Ph.D., Founder of Calera Corporation, who operates the world's first power plant CO2 conversion to green cement demonstration plant at Moss Landing announced today the formation of Moss Landing Water, LLC.

Moss Landing Water, LLC will draw deep water from the Monterey Submarine Canyon to Moss Landing for desalination. This may be an important seawater sourcing solution, based on solid science, for the dilemma Californians, especially in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, face with water supply.

Moss Landing is a unique location because of its proximity to the deepest submarine canyon in the world, which provides near-shore access to deep water, avoiding the problems associated with drawing from shallow, near-shore water for desalination. Monterey Submarine Canyon drops to over 270 meters depth directly off Moss Landing Harbor, a depth at which most sea life ceases to exist.

Brent Constantz said, "This approach is respectful of the ecological concerns of drawing shallow sea water and the associated entrainment and entrapment of marine life because the deep water in the canyon hosts a couple orders of magnitude less biomass than the surface waters there, and what marine life there is in the deep water can readily be avoided at the sea water intake without entrainment and entrapment occurring, unlike the productive shallow water. This is a wonderful solution for the entire Monterey Bay Region."

Stan Lueck, CEO of Desal America, stated, "The Moss Landing site and its proximity to deep seawater has a number of unique advantages from the standpoint of treatment system design. Sufficient land area is available for the most cost-efficient layout of the treatment system particularly in allowing for future expansion. The use of deep water for raw feed minimizes pretreatment operating cost due to the higher quality of the deep water."

The proposed publically-owned water operation at Moss Landing will utilize the existing sea water outfall pipes used by Desal America, Calera, MBARI and Moss Landing Marine Lab going out toward the canyon for drawing deep water for desalination.

Calera's Constantz added, "I think drawing deep water out of the canyon at Moss Landing provides the most environmentally sensible solution for the situation. In the future, I see the potential of the site to develop new sea water desalination technology with investment from Silicon Valley to form an international center of excellence for desalination technology development and testing associated with the currently planned commercial water operations there, which will begin water production with present-day state-of-the-art membrane RO-UF technology."

"Selection of the most suitable site for the desalination plant will have by far the biggest impact on the cost of the plant and therefore on the cost of the water produced," said Scott Jackson Managing Partner of Telesto Consulting Group, LLC, a firm specialized in the design and permitting of seawater reverse osmosis plants for the production of high quality drinking water.

"Appropriate site selection will also result in the minimal environmental impact associated with the construction and operation of the desalination plant. The principals of our firm have been involved in the design, permitting and construction of more than 30 seawater desalination plants both in California and around the world and never have we seen a site with more favorable conditions than the Moss Landing site," continued Jackson.

"The fact that the Moss Landing site is already zoned to accommodate construction of the desal plant and has an existing intake and outfall for feedwater to the plant makes the Moss Landing site ideal for construction of a regional desalination plant," added Jackson.

A presentation was made to the desal sub-committee of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District on November 16, 2010 and the sub-committee voted unanimously to have district staff to add the new Moss Landing Water, LLC to the desal study matrix.

An Advisory Board of distinguished scientists and policy experts is being formed to advise Monterey Water, LLC and to provide an arms-length critical mass and knowledge source for the effort. Among new members of the advisory board is Gary Griggs, Director of Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, who stated, "The Moss Landing area is an appropriate site for desalination consideration. There is existing infrastructure including several offshore pipelines that can be utilized without additional upfront investment, and the deep waters of Monterey Submarine Canyon provide a good source of water without the concern of entrainment of surface water organisms.

###