In September, a long-anticipated, multimillion-dollar desalination plant began treating water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to cover nearly half the water needs of the City of Antioch.
The plant is one of at least 37 desalination facilities in operation in California as the state works to diversify its water supply, which could shrink by 10% in the next 15 years, according to officials (science suggests more multi-year droughts and reduced snowpack on the horizon due to global warming).
The $120 million plant, only the second in the Bay Area and the first in the Delta, desalinates brackish water, a mixture of salt and fresh water that usually occurs where rivers flow into the ocean. The process is widely considered a cheaper, more energy-efficient way to produce drinking water than ocean desalination, which is more controversial due to its environmental impacts.
Read MoreSource: Knee Deep Times