ACCIONA and J.R. Filanc Construction have been awarded by the South Coast Water District the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a new ocean desalination plant that will provide fresh drinking water for residences and businesses in the South Orange County region.

The Doheny Ocean Desalination Plant – to be located in Dana Point, California – will include up to five fully submerged slant wells, one mile of raw water pipeline and a treatment facility utilizing reverse osmosis technology.

Alongside the South Coast Water District, including two public partnering agencies and California State Parks, ACCIONA and Filanc will work with Hazen on the design of the project where the new oceanwater slant wells will be located and all conveyance and treatment facilities, while also developing a carbon-neutral energy supply strategy.

DROUGHT PROTECTION

The Doheny Ocean Desalination Project will create a new local water supply that is drought-proof, while also providing an emergency water supply in case the area’s existing imported water supply is disrupted by earthquakes or other natural disasters.

The slant wells located below the ocean floor will provide the raw seawater source, avoiding any disturbance of marine life. The brine will be mixed with treated water from an adjacent wastewater treatment plant in an existing ocean outfall pipe (San Juan Creek Ocean Outfall) and released back into the ocean which is the regulatory and environmentally preferred method.

Once complete, ACCIONA will lead the operations and maintenance of the project for approximately 15 years to provide sustainable, local, high-quality water at a reasonable cost, with a facility able to withstand natural disasters and resilient to drought and climate change.

ACCIONA is a world leader in saltwater reverse osmosis, which is the most advanced, sustainable and widely-used desalination technology, capable of improving water quality and reducing environmental impact.

Reverse osmosis produces 6.5 times less CO2 emissions than conventional desalination technologies. The company can carry out all of the processes involved in developing a desalination facility: design, construction, operation and maintenance. 

Some of ACCIONA’s most important desalination projects include the Port Stanvac desalination plant (Adelaide, Australia), Al Khobar 2 (Saudi Arabia), Collahuasí (Tarapacá, Chile), Tampa Bay (Florida, USA) and the Torrevieja desalination plant in Alicante (Spain).