Thursday, March 18
6:15 pm
Live Oak Elementary School Gym
1916 Capitola Rd. at Chanticleer
Free/by donation
Desalination and the Alternatives
It's Up to the Community
A forum with:
Debbie Cook, former mayor of Huntington Beach and Board President, Post Carbon Institute
Bill Kocher, Director, Santa Cruz Water Department
Heather Cooley, Pacific Institute
Rick Longinotti, Alternatives to Desalination
John Laird, Moderator
Speakers:
Debbie Cook, former Mayor of Huntington Beach, will talk about her city’s consideration of desalination as a water source. Cook served as one of two elected officials on the state’s Desalination Task Force, where she says she got her education about desalination. Her experience led her to serve as president of the board of the Post Carbon Institute, a think tank responding to environmental, energy and economic crises. She has written an article called, Desalination: Energy Down the Drain, in which she writes, “One thing for sure, ocean desalination is not about California’s water crisis. We live in a desert and use too much water. Our water needs can be solved if we follow the lead of agencies like Irvine Ranch Water District and take appropriate measures: allocation based rate structures, smart timers, landscaping codes, and conservation…. Ocean desalination is an example of our complete failure to recognize stark realities—water, food, energy, soil, air, and oceans are limited and our population and consumption keeps growing. Once again we are applying a technical fix to an adaptive challenge.”
Bill Kocher is the Director of the Santa Cruz Water Department, serving 90,000 people in Santa Cruz and Live Oak. Bill will present the costs and benefits of the proposed desalination plant from the point of view of the City’s Integrated Water Plan, approved by the City Council in 2005.
Heather Cooley is Senior Research Associate with Pacific Institute’s Water and Sustainability Program. She co-authored the Pacific Institute’s publication, Desalination, With a Grain of Salt, A California Perspective, and the publication, The Impact of Sea-level Rise on the California Coast. Heather has testified before Congress on climate change impacts on agriculture.
Rick Longinotti, is author of an article on our local water policy, Desalination? Or Living Within Our Water Limits? Rick will address drought security, aquifer overdraft, and growth in water demand through conservation-based alternatives to desal. He will also evaluate the proposals under consideration by Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water Departments to offset the greenhouse gas impact of the plant.
Sponsors:
Transition Santa Cruz, Ecology Action, Surfrider Foundation, WILPF, Save Our Shores, Community Water Coalition, Live Oak Neighbors, Central Coast Greywater Alliance, Ecological Landscaping Association, Coastal Watershed Council