The environmental watchdog group Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is asking the Santa Barbara City Council to come up with a more environmentally sound way to draw water from the ocean.
The water would be drawn through a piping system and into a desalination plant that is scheduled to start operating again later this year.
The city is using an intake pipe with a screen but Channelkeeper says that if the process were below the floor of the ocean and not above it, there would be less of a chance that micro marine organisms would be drawn in.
The regional water quality control board has not enforced the sub-surface policy on this plant since it is a reactivation of the facility, permitted in the 1990's, instead of a new facility.
City officials say they are reactivating the plant with environmental concerns in mind.