Further to previous reports on the subject, David Sneed suggests that as much as 1,000 acre-feet a year of desalinated water from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant could be made available to South County residents as soon as late next year under a plan given preliminary approval Tuesday by San Luis Obispo County supervisors.\n\nThe Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to allow Public Works staff to begin planning the construction of a 7-mile emergency water pipeline that would carry drinking water from the power plant to Avila Beach, where it could be fed into the water distribution system from Lopez Lake.\n\nWe are going to need another source of water that is not precipitation, said county Supervisor Adam Hill, whose district includes the power plant and parts of the South County. I am looking forward to seeing this move forward, he said. \n\nPG&E operates a seawater desalination plant at Diablo Canyon. It is the plants sole source of freshwater. However, the desalination plant has the capacity to produce an extra 500 acre-feet a year, which could be doubled to 1,000 acre-feet a year with some expansion of the facility.\n\nUnder the proposed project, an 8- to 10-inch pipeline would be laid along the main access road to the plant. Once in Avila Beach, the water would hook into the Lopez Lake water distribution system in Port San Luis. It could then be distributed throughout the South County in order to alleviate severe drought conditions.
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