New Seawater Desalination Unit Abates Stage 3 Water Rationing

2015-08-24
Southern California Edison

The new desalination unit arrived safely to its new home at the Southern California Edison plant on Monday August 24, 2015 and is now resting with an ocean view down Pebbly Beach Road.

Mayor Ann Marshall and Councilmembers Joe Sampson and Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy were there to document this important step in the management of the drought conditions on Catalina Island with Management Aide for the City Jordan Monroe and Project Manager Matthew Botting for SCE.

Irwin Industries, the subcontractor working on the installation has been going 7 days a week to establish all the infrastructure needed to support the new desal unit and tie it into our existing water system. 

The present Councilmembers were impressed with the efforts by everyone working on this project to keep everything on schedule, especially with such a short time line.  With limited space available at the Pebbly Beach plant SCE is fitting the new unit in like it was always designed to be there.  The unit is anticipated to be online towards the end of September 2015.

Upon the completion of the installation and set up for the new unit, informally named “Salty Dog” as we took the tour, we look forward to celebrating with a nice glass of…fresh water, of course! 

“This is truly a time to celebrate the collaboration with Southern California Edison and the residents, businesses and visitors of Avalon through your City Council.  SCE’s diligence in this project is to be commended” states Mayor Marshall.

“The Council’s efforts partnered with SCE to abate Stage 3 water rationing is one of the multiple steps to mitigate the water rationing and address water security for generations to come” concluded the Mayor.

For the latest updates on water rationing and the ongoing efforts for Catalina Island please visit www.cityofavalon.com and click the Middle Ranch Reservoir Level news feed or www.sce.com/catalina.