Desalination plant for Baja California, not Alta California

Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid, at center in beige jacket, presides at a groundbreaking ceremony in the community of La Chorera, site of desalination plant set to open in 2017 to supply residents in the San Quintin agricultural region. — Gob. de Baja California

El Niño is a bust, and MEXICO acts

California political hacks sit on their hands while Mexican politicians build desalination plants.

TIJUANA (San Diego Union Tribune) — A New York City-based company working with two Mexican partners has launched construction of an ocean water desalination plant in the agricultural region of San Quintin some 160 miles from the San Diego border.

Scheduled to open in the summer of 2017, the plant would provide 5.8 million gallons of water daily to more than 100,000 residents of the region.

The cost of the project is about $32 million at current exchange rates. It is the first to be approved under Baja California’s new public-private partnership law.

“This would not have been possible without this new very important tool that we have in Baja California,” Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid said at a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday.

The financing and construction of the facility is being carried out by a consortium made up of RWL Water Group and two Mexican partners, Libra Ingenieros Civiles and R.J. Ingenieria. Under the agreement, the group would operate the plant for 30 years.

RWL Water’s founder and chairman is Ronald S. Lauder, a former U.S. ambassador to Austria who also served as the president of the World Jewish Congress.

San Quintin is an important agricultural region that specializes in export-oriented produce, such as strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers. But unlike other areas of Baja California, it does not receive water from the Colorado River and has struggled with a limited water supply.

The future facility, located in the fishing community of La Chorera, is one of two desalination plants now under construction in Baja California. A similar-sized reverse-osmosis plant in the port city of Ensenada is scheduled for opening in April 2017.

The state of Baja California also has been pursuing the possibility of a public-private partnership to build a third desalination plant with a capacity for 100 million gallons a day, with the possibility of selling some of that water to U.S. consumers.

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The drought goes on in Alta California