CARLSBAD, Calif. — About four miles off the Southern California coast, a company bets it can solve one of desalination's biggest problems by moving the technology deep below the ocean's surface.
Jaden Gilliam, OceanWell project engineer, left, and Mark Golay, director of engineering projects, lower a prototype reverse osmosis pod Dec. 1 into Las Virgenes Reservoir in Westlake Village, Calif.
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A prototype OceanWell reverse osmosis pod is lowered Dec. 1 into Las Virgenes Reservoir in Westlake Village, Calif., where the desalination technology is tested.
A desalination plant's intake lagoon is seen Dec. 2 on the right, and the discharge canal on the left, in Carlsbad, Calif.
Garibaldi, California’s state fish, which are vulnerable to impingement on desalination intake screens, swim Dec. 2 in La Jolla, Calif.
Reverse osmosis machinery operates Dec. 2 at the desalination plant in Carlsbad, Calif.
Climate change is fueling a desalination boom
A prototype OceanWell reverse osmosis pod sits on the dock Dec. 1 at the Las Virgenes Reservoir in Westlake Village, Calif., where the technology is tested.
Jaden Gilliam, OceanWell project engineer, left, and Mark Golay, director of engineering projects, lower a prototype reverse osmosis pod Dec. 1 into the reservoir.
The intake screen of OceanWell's prototype reverse osmosis pod, designed to allow microscopic organisms such as plankton to safely pass through, is seen Dec. 1 in Westlake Village, Calif.
A prototype OceanWell reverse osmosis pod is lowered Dec. 1 into Las Virgenes Reservoir in Westlake Village, Calif.
The Carlsbad desalination plant's intake lagoon is seen Dec. 2 on the right and the discharge canal on the left.
A sectioned-off area of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon marks the seawater intake for the Carlsbad desalination plant Dec. 2 in Carlsbad, Calif.
Reverse osmosis machinery operates Dec. 2 at the Carlsbad desalination plant in Carlsbad, Calif.
Pipes carrying brackish feed water Dec. 2 run through the Carlsbad desalination plant.
Pipes carrying brine and other substances Dec. 2 run through the Carlsbad desalination plant.
Remnants of fire-damaged homes are seen Dec. 1 in the Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif.
Garibaldi, California’s state fish, which are vulnerable to impingement on desalination intake screens, swim Dec. 2 in La Jolla, Calif.
A sea lion basks in the sun Dec. 3 in La Jolla, Calif.
Kelp rises Dec. 2 from a thinned kelp forest in La Jolla, Calif.
