Welcome to the Bay Area Regional Desalination Project website.

The Bay Area's largest water agencies are working together to develop a regional desalination project to serve the needs of over 5.6 million residents and businesses in the region. The Contra Costa Water District, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and the Santa Clara Valley Water District have collaborated since 2003. The Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District - Zone 7 joined the project in 2010. The Bay Area Regional Desalination Project (BARDP) would consist of one or more facilities, with an estimated capacity range of 10 to 50 million gallons per day (mgd).

Technical studies conducted in 2005 identified three locations in the Bay Area where a regional desalination facility could be located (Figure 1). A 6-month pilot test was completed in April 2009 at Contra Costa Water District's Mallard Slough Pump Station which confirmed the technical viability of the project. A Site-Specific analysis is planned for 2011-2013 and will include detailed hydraulic modeling, fisheries and water quality modeling, a storage optimization analysis, a greenhouse gas analysis and an energy efficiency evaluation.