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SALINAS, Calif. -- A new desal project could be hitting the Central Coast.
Right now the Salinas City Council is exploring the idea of buying water and electricity.
City Manager Ray Corpuz said the issue is water quality, not quantity, and he doesn't want to wait until a crisis to make a move.
That's why he's pushing for the city to look into the idea of buying water and wholesale power by partnering up with DeepWater Desal, a wholesale power generator in Moss Landing.
It would allow the city to purchase power-generated at the facility and sell it on a retail basis.
He said talking with the company won't cost anything, for now.
"These water issues are finite in a sense that the supply is always finite. We have in our basin here a water quality issue right now, more than water quantity," he said."I think you have to look into the future. You can't just wait until five years and you're scrambling to make water resources available."
Corpuz said by purchasing electricity, the city can open its doors to big business, including the high-tech energy industry.
"Power is usually a very expensive part of anybody's business, particularly if you're trying to attract high and tactical companies, where they use lots of energy for data centers," he said.
