Permits and Regulatory Requirements

Abstract

T here are two major regulatory and permitting issues that relate to planning and implementing desalination plants. Issue 1 relates to developing the water sources, i.e., brackish water or seawater. Issue 2 relates to discharge and disposal or management of concentrate and other byproducts of the desalination plants. Regulations that specifically apply to desalination are almost non-existent. However, there are several federal regulations pertinent to desalination and a number of federal agencies have jurisdiction over those regulations. A few states have regulations and permitting requirements that relate to desalination. This chapter provides an overview of federal agencies and federal regulations pertinent to desalination followed by an overview of regulations pertinent to desalination in four states. California is the leading state in implementation of desalination technology, which uses mostly seawater and some brackish water as the source water. There are several desalination facilities in Texas and Florida, mostly using brackish water as the source water and planning for large-scale seawater desalination is underway. There are a few small-scale desalination plants in the commonwealth of Virginia using brackish groundwater as the source water. Regulations in these four states described in this chapter represent diverse systems and can be considered representative of desalination regulation in the United States.