The Santa Cruz Water Department and the Soquel Creek Water District have formed
the scwd2 Task Force to evaluate reverse osmosis seawater desalination. Both
agencies, which are located in Santa Cruz County, California, have identified seawater
desalination as the most reliable, flexible and overall best option for addressing
shortfalls from existing water sources. If seawater desalination is implemented, a full-scale
plant would be designed to produce up to 2.5 million gallons per day of
permeate.
This paper briefly describes the scwd2 seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination
pilot-scale study, provides background on algal toxins of concern along the Pacific
Coast of California, information on local discharges, and presents results from the pilot
testing on the occurrence and removal of algal toxins, steroids and pharmaceuticals
during Pacific Ocean Seawater Desalination.