Carlsbad City Council to consider 30-year contract with desalination plant

CARLSBAD - On Tuesday, the Carlsbad City Council is set to consider a 30-year contract to buy water from the under-construction Poseidon Resources Corp. desalination plant.

The contract would be with the San Diego County Water Authority, and backers of the deal say it would guarantee a local source of drinking water to supplement Carlsbad's only other source -- imported Colorado River water purchased from the Water Authority, the U-T San Diego reported.

The pending agreement would inflate the average Carlsbad homeowner's water bill by about $7 per month.

The Water Authority board is set to vote on the water purchase agreement with Poseidon at a meeting Thursday. When completed, the desalination plant, which is being built near the Encina power station in Carlsbad, is expected to produce about 50 million gallons of fresh water per day, enough to supply about 7 percent of the region.

Also on the agenda is a public hearing for a $29.4 million expansion of the city's recycled water system in the southeastern reaches of Carlsbad.

Recycled water is mostly used for irrigation. The expansion would be in the southeastern portion of the city.