Tuesday July 30, 2024
12 News —
Jeremy Crutchfield twists a silver tap attached to a pipe and places a cup underneath it as the water starts to flow.
“All right,” he says, “Pacific on tap.”
He takes a drink of clear, clean, fresh water that, until an hour ago, had surfers carving through it.
“We’re right by the largest reservoir in the world,” Crutchfield says, surrounded by tanks, pipes and heavy machinery.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant capitalizes on its position next to that “reservoir”, the Pacific Ocean, to treat billions of gallons of seawater and turn it into usable, drinkable water.
“We’ve produced over 120 billion gallons of high-quality drinking water,” Crutchfield said. “It represents about 10% of the water for San Diego County.”