On Tuesday night, June 19, 2001, the MMWD Board of Directors and an audience of approximately 60 people heard a presentation of desalination technologies, pros and cons, and preliminary cost estimates for a Desalination plant in Marin. The report updated estimates made in 1991, at which time desalination was determined to be too expensive compared to the cost of imported water. Desalination was revisited because of the ever increasing costs (including costs of environmental damage) of importing Russian /Eel River water for Marin use.

The model plant envisioned by the consultants would be located on the shores of the San Francisco bay, near the Marin Rod and Gun Club, by San Quentin, and would produce between 5 and 15 million gallons per day. With half of that capacity being waste product of concentrated brine, which must be discharged back into the Bay. The Marin project would be unusual in that desalination plants are normally co-located with power plants in order to re-use the pressurized steam produced by the power plant, as a cost-saving measure. However, the model considered was based on a small, stand-alone facility.

According to life-cycle cost estimates of desalination and other options, desalination water supply would come at roughly twice the rate as additional Russian River water brought through a new Sonoma-Marin pipeline. Although this immediately brought hard questions from the board of directors to the MMWD staff, regarding cost projections and numbers provided by the Sonoma County Water District.

Director Jared Huffman, and others questioned whether Randy Poole, Director of the SCWA, had provided updated figures for the expansion and improvements the Sonoma County agency has been planning. The answer was "no" there were no new cost analysis provided to Marin, and the figure they were told to use was $180 million dollars (estimates range from $500 million to $1 billion dollars depending if a new water treatment plant is required). Also the question was raised whether there might be 'hidden' costs to the Sonoma water not included in the Desalination Report's comparison chart, and potential desalination plant savings or advantages that were not considered in the Report.

For example: in comparing the total cost of Russian River supply to desalination, Director Huffman noted that MMWD's SCWA contract requires Marin to buy Sonoma water even during winter months, when Marin reservoirs are full and SCWA water is not needed, and posed the question as to whether the ability to turn desalination plant's production on and off as needed, might result in significant additional cost benefits. Other benefits of desalination, relative to SCWA purchases, are that supply would be available as long the Bay has water, and not dependent on critical habitat for endangered species.

According to the consultant, Desalination Reverse Osmosis plants can be rapidly mobilized and a facility bought by San Diego county was up and running in less than 11 months.

Production capacity of other alternatives were determined to be insufficient to meet predicted needs and /or were even more expensive than Desalination or Russian River imported water. Volume's are in Acre Feet (AF) which is the equivalent of 1 acre of land, flooded to 1 ft depth, or 328,000 gallons.

Graywater: $1341 dollars per AF; Seawater Reverse Osmosis: $879 per AF; Russian River import: $398 per AF (note: does not include cost increases from expansion projects in Sonoma)

Motivation for considerations of alternatives to a new MMWD pipeline and increased dependence on SCWA water include concerns about: the potential of SCWA prices to skyrocket, projected Sonoma demand trends and the strain already experienced on the SCWA system, degrading SCWA water quality, and the increasingly controvercial environmental damage done to the fisheries of the Eel and Russian Rivers.

It is worth noting that this 'Devil's Choice' between expensive, awkward, environmentally harmful water supplies is based primarily upon the assumption that Marin will continue to increase in population, something within the power of Marin's elected leaders to curtail and a goal, the benefit of which has not been concretely established.