A winch is being used to launch a large mental cylinder that's about a dozen feet long into a reservoir in the Santa Monica Mountains, just above Westlake Village. The gleaming silver pod is part of a cutting edge new technology focused on turning salt water into drinking water.
A company called OceanWell is developing the desalination pod project. If the technology works, a “farm” of dozens of the pods could be set up off the coast, using a new desalination process to create drinking water. They’re using a small-scale version of the pod in the reservoir because it’s a good controlled environment for testing.
"It's our second-generation test prototype, we call it our pilot system, for this merge reverse osmosis technology," said Michael Porter, Chief Technology Officer for OceanWell.
He said the goal is to test the pod's circulation system, which is focused on the intake and parts of the outfall. He said they are testing how seawater would circulate through as if it were in the ocean.
Porter said because the pods are modular, the size of the pod farms can be scaled up to meet the need. And, he said, because they're used at deep sea levels, there are fewer issues with sea life being affected than with conventional desalination plants. Because they're modular, a pod could be serviced without taking the whole system out of operation.
"They [the farms] can grow with time. So, you can add more pods as your water capacity needs grow," said Porter. "We can start small and get bigger."
The testing is taking place at the Las Virgenes Reservoir, in the Santa Monica Mountains just above Westlake Village. The Las Virgines Municipal Water District is a partner in the testing.
The District serves parts of the Conejo Valley, as well as areas of eastern Los Angeles County. It's hard hit during droughts. It gets all of its water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, so developing new sources of water is critical.
"One of our biggest challenges is that we lack local water. And in the water business, having multiple drought-resilient supplies is so important during times of drought," said Dave Pederson, who is the General Manager of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.
"We experienced in 2022 a historic drought that had impacts to our community that they did not want to see again, and they expected us to plan ahead and be better prepared for the future."
"This effort and this partnership with OceanWell is the way we're going to do that, so that we can bring in new supplies of water, a supply that is not dependent on the weather and the climate. To do that in a safe, effective, and low-cost way," said Pederson.
With the potential for drought always in the background, there’s a lot of interest in this idea among water agencies. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California supplied grant money for this pilot project.
"What we're seeing looking forward is that it's not necessarily growth that is outstripping those (existing water) supplies. It's the erosion of those supplies over time, as some of the natural systems aren't producing. You're seeing climate effects. You're seeing regulatory impacts. So, we have to keep looking towards the next innovative technologies," said Devin Upadhyay, the MWD’s General Manager.
He said this concept is especially appealing because it’s more environmentally friendly than traditional desalination plants.
OceanWell is hoping to do some of its first ocean testing later this year. The hope is to have the first farm of pods operational off the coast of Malibu in 2028.
