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S. HRG. 114–296 

NEW APPROACHES AND INNOVATIVE 

TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE WATER SUPPLY 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON 

ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

APRIL 20, 2016 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

ROGER WICKER, Mississippi 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota 

DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska 

BARBARA BOXER, California 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

RYAN JACKSON, Majority Staff Director 

BETTINA POIRIER, Democratic Staff Director 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

APRIL 20, 2016 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma .................... 1 

Boxer, Hon. Barbara, U.S. Senator from the State of California ........................ 3 

WITNESSES 

Dalton, James, Chief, Engineering and Construction, U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers .............................................................................................................. 6 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 

Response to an additional question from Senator Inhofe ............................. 18 

Bilodeau, Denis R., P.E., First Vice President and Director, Board of Directors, Orange County Water District ................................................................... 19 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 21 

Price, Kevin, Senior Science and Technology Advisor, Middle East Desalination Research Center ........................................................................................... 30 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 32 

Response to an additional question from Senator Inhofe ............................. 37 

(1) 

NEW APPROACHES AND INNOVATIVE 

TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE WATER SUPPLY 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:01 a.m. in room 

406, Dirksen Senate Building, Hon. James M. Inhofe (chairman of 

the committee) presiding. 

Present: Senators Inhofe, Boxer, Capito, Crapo, Fischer, Rounds, 

and Gillibrand. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. INHOFE, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA 

Senator INHOFE. Meeting will come to order. We apologize for 

being a few minutes late. We had a vote at 10 o’clock. So that is 

our daytime job, and we have to do it. 

Drought conditions are still—well, they have and they still affect 

many regions of the country. California and Oklahoma have been 

dramatically affected. This morning we have witnesses that represent Orange County, California, promising new technologies of 

desalination, and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. 

For the vast majority of the past 6 years, Oklahoma suffered 

from a devastating drought event that had nothing to do with global warming, I might add. As the drought reached its worst in the 

summer of 2014, more than 60 percent of Oklahoma was in the 

U.S. Drought Monitor’s ‘‘extreme’’ category. More than 30 percent 

of the State’s land area was experiencing ‘‘exceptional’’ drought or 

worse category. 

Communities were rationing water. Some communities in the 

hardest hit areas looked to re-use of wastewater and tapping unconventional sources or those of marginal quality for non-potable 

uses in order to free up more valuable fresh water supplies. 

Evaporating lakes and ponds in Oklahoma forced cattlemen to 

sell their herds and oil companies to search for increasingly expensive alternatives to continue production. 

Abundant rainfall to excessive flooding conditions occurred nearly a year ago which caused dangerous situations throughout Oklahoma but greatly improved our water supply, at least for the time 

being. 

Our water supplies are also overtaxed with old and often failing 

infrastructure not able to keep pace with demand. These problems 

affect communities all across the Nation. It is not exaggerated to 
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say that water supply issues limit growth and impose a very real 

threat to local and regional economies and people’s quality of life. 

However, in Oklahoma, the communities have started planning 

with business groups, agricultural interests and the energy sector 

on the local level to develop regional water action plans to resolve 

their mutual water problems. The foundation of the water action 

plan model demonstrates that water, as the key element in the 

State and local economies, it focuses on unifying and enforcing 

stakeholders to develop near-, short- and long-term regional strategies to maximize reliability and diversify the supply of water. 

The severe drought conditions Oklahoma encountered forced us 

to identify new sources of groundwater and further develop our existing underwater supplies to address our over-reliance on surface 

water, to build infrastructure and pipelines to reliable underused 

water resources, building new wells—we have tried it all. City 

planning and regional planning have been the most efficient way 

of preparing to address the water supply problems, but there are 

supportive roles for State and Federal Government to assist our 

communities, and there are roles for corporate citizens as well. 

For example, one area in Oklahoma hardest hit by the drought 

is the city of Enid, Oklahoma. One innovative example by the Koch 

Industries’ is their nitrogen plant, one of the largest fertilizer production plants in North America, uses the city of Enid’s treated 

wastewater for in-plant cooling water. Eventually, this re-use 

project will free up almost 5 million gallons of water each day. 

That’s almost one-half of Enid’s total current usage. 

The Federal Government can have a role to play in assisting the 

regional infrastructure planning among States. An example of that 

are the chloride control actions on the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. These projects were specifically authorized by 

Congress dating back to 1966, with chloride control studies beginning at the Red River as early as 1959. 

Chloride control actions in Oklahoma and Texas have and will 

provide new drinking water supplies, increase agricultural irrigation and improve downstream water quality. In fact, Mr. Dalton, I 

am currently working with the Corps, their Tulsa district office, to 

develop a general reevaluation and review and record a decision for 

the Elm Fork Chloride plant in Oklahoma. 

At one point, some reservoirs in Oklahoma were less than 20 percent capacity. Now, many are nearly full with multiple year supply. 

Although, presently the drought has subsided, plans must continue, too, so that we know it is going to be coming back. 

It is kind of funny, when we talk about this issue, for me anyway. This was an issue in Oklahoma way back when I was in the 

State legislature. The big issue at that time was transporting the 

water from eastern Oklahoma to western Oklahoma. It was really 

a situation that made everybody mad. So this is not a new situation, and it is not just local to Oklahoma. It is across the Nation. 

Senator Boxer. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Inhofe follows:] 

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. INHOFE, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

Drought conditions have affected and still affect many regions of the country. 

California and Oklahoma have been dramatically affected. This morning we have 
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witnesses which represent Orange County, California, promising new technologies 

in desalination, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

For the vast majority of the past 6 years, Oklahoma suffered from a devastating 

drought event. As the drought reached its worst in the summer of 2014, more than 

60 percent of Oklahoma was in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s ‘‘extreme’’ category. 

More than 30 percent of the State’s land area was experiencing ‘‘exceptional’’ 

drought, the worst category. Communities were rationing water. Some communities 

in the hardest hit areas looked to re-use of wastewater and tapping unconventional 

sources or those of marginal quality for non-potable uses in order to free up more 

valuable fresh water supplies. Evaporating lakes and ponds in Oklahoma forced 

cattlemen to sell their herds and oil companies to search for increasingly expensive 

alternatives to continue production. 

Abundant rainfall to excessive flooding conditions occurred nearly a year ago 

which caused dangerous situations throughout Oklahoma but greatly improved our 

water supply, at least for the time being. 

Our water supplies are also over-taxed with old and often failing infrastructure 

not able to keep pace with demand. These problems affect communities all across 

the Nation. It is not exaggerated to say that water supply issues limit growth and 

pose a very real threat to local and regional economies and people’s quality of life. 

However, in Oklahoma, communities have started planning with business groups, 

agricultural interests, and the energy sector on a local level to develop regional 

Water Action Plans to resolve their mutual water problems. The foundation of the 

Water Action Plan model demonstrates that water is the key element in State and 

local economies. It focuses on unifying and forcing stakeholders to develop near-, 

short- and long-term regional strategies to maximize reliability and diversify the 

supply of water. 

The severe drought conditions Oklahoma encountered forced us to identify new 

sources of groundwater and further develop our existing underground supplies to 

address our over-reliance on surface water, build new infrastructure and pipelines 

to reliable and underused water sources, build new wells, improve and refurbish existing reservoirs, and change water use ordinances to encourage or require more 

water conservation. 

City planning and regional planning have been the most efficient way of preparing and addressing water supply problems, but there are supportive roles for 

State and the Federal Government to assist our communities, and there are roles 

for our corporate citizens as well. 

For example, one area in Oklahoma hardest hit by drought is the city of Enid, 

Oklahoma. One innovative example by the Koch Industries’ nitrogen facility, one of 

the largest fertilizer production plants in North America, uses the city of Enid’s 

treated wastewater for in-plant cooling water. Eventually, this re-use project will 

free up almost 5 million gallons of water each day—that’s almost one-half of Enid’s 

total current usage. 

The Federal Government can have a role to play in assisting in regional infrastructure planning among States. An example of that are the chloride control actions at the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. These projects were specifically authorized by Congress dating back to 1966 with chloride control studies beginning at the Red River as early as 1959. Chloride control actions in Oklahoma 

and Texas have and will provide new drinking water supplies, increased agricultural irrigation, and improved downstream water quality. In fact, Mr. Dalton, I am 

currently working with Corps’ Tulsa District Office to develop a general reevaluation review and record of decision for the Elm Fork Chloride Control Plan in Oklahoma. 

At one point, some reservoirs in Oklahoma were less than 20 percent capacity. 

Now, many are nearly full with multiple years’ supply. Although presently the 

drought has subsided, plans must continue so our communities are prepared for 

both uncertainties but for growth as well. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses this morning and new opportunities. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Senator BOXER. I really want to thank you so much for this hearing. We have some contentious hearings, I do not think this one 

will be such. Because we are going to discuss innovative technologies to improve water supply. This is something very dear to 

me and significant for my home State of California. 
4 

I tell you, I have gotten into some pretty heated conversations, 

I was telling the Chairman, in my State, because I really do support these technologies. Others just turn away, say, it is too expensive, or we shouldn’t do this. There could be unlimited supplies of 

water for growth and all the rest. 

To me this is a moment in time—whether we believe climate 

change is causing these droughts or not, what is the difference? We 

don’t have to fight about that. The fact is we are dealing with these 

droughts. 

And so I know this issue is dear to me, as I see what is happening. Even though we have had El Nin ̃ o this year, it didn’t live 

up to expectations. It certainly has done a lot to help us. But we 

know we are looking at long-term problems. We have horrible arguments between all the stakeholders, whether between the agricultural people and the fishing industries, and the urban users and 

the suburban users. And they fight all the way to the courthouse 

door. 

And Mr. Chairman, you and I know when you get to the courthouse door one thing happens: delay, confusion, we don’t know the 

rules of the game. We need to have a water supply that is there 

for us. 

Now, I am so pleased to have Denis Bilodeau here from the Orange County Water District. I am really happy to see you, Denis, 

because you have been engaged in the development and implementation of water supply technologies for many years. 

Orange County, my latest notes say, tell me if I am wrong, is the 

sixth largest county in our Nation. We have 2.4 million people just 

in Orange County alone. Is that about right? 

Mr. BILODEAU. We have 2.4 million in our service area; there are 

3.2 million in total in Orange County. 

Senator BOXER. Three point two million, 2.4 million in your service area. So we are literally talking about making sure people can 

live comfortably and have the water that they need. 

This severe drought has forced our Governor to declare a drought 

state of emergency. We have water restrictions. Again, even though 

El Nin ̃ o has done better up north, it has not done that well down 

south. We know that we can expect more droughts in the future. 

So we do face many challenges associated with this ongoing 

drought, including over-tapped aquifers, mandatory water restrictions, threats to our Bay-Delta ecosystem, to our fisheries, to our 

agriculture. When you mention water in California, everybody’s 

back goes up because there are so many arguments going on over 

diminishing resources. 

My view as a United States Senator is I do not take sides between the jobs in the fishing industry and the jobs in agriculture; 

they are all jobs. I don’t take sides; I am trying to get everyone to 

the table. I believe—that is why I am so proud that my Chairman 

shares this, that we need to look at ways to avoid these terrible 

battles. That means a bigger water supply. 

When you get into where do you put in a dam, that starts the 

march to the courthouse door. But if we were to be able to move 

forward with desal, move forward with recycling, move forward 

with conservation that makes sense, we don’t have to fight over 

these supplies. We need to work together to expand the pool by 
5 

using our water more intelligently and making sure we can tap 

into these technologies. 

So we are very fortunate, Mr. Chairman, to have two excellent 

witnesses. We probably have three excellent witnesses. I know two 

of them who will offer thoughts on how the Government can help. 

The Orange County water district will explain how it converted 

wastewater into 100 million gallons per day of clean safe drinking 

water, enough for 850,000 people. 

Mr. Price will talk about his experiences with desal in the Middle 

East, particularly in Israel where so much truly innovative water 

supply activity is occurring. So when people look at desal and they 

say, oh, what are you thinking, they should just talk to the folks 

who have been living with this technology for a very long time. 

I am also pleased that the Corps is here, because they have such 

an important responsibility for managing water around the country. The Corps operates 30 dams and reservoirs just in California. 

These reservoirs serve critical water supply needs. The Corps must 

employ the latest technologies to ensure these reservoirs are operated efficiently and can meet the growing water supply challenges. 

I think today we can look for these opportunities to invest in new 

technologies. We can also learn from our international partners, 

such as Israel, who has confronted these supply challenges. 

In closing, I would say this we have a chance in this WRDA bill 

to make some more history, Mr. Chairman, to take a look at this 

and start a new way of looking at water supply. Because drought 

faces us; it always has, and it always will. It could get worse. We 

are not sure, but we can’t take a gamble on water supply. 

Thank you. 

Senator INHOFE. One thing, Senator Boxer, that neither one of 

us mentioned is the significance of the water in terms of our military. It happens that right now in the audience we have Bill Burgess and several of them from the city, from Fort Sill, which is the 

city of Lawton. Right next door to it is Altus Air Force Base. And 

it is something that really is critical. Because the needs of those 

two, we have gotten to the point of where they would almost have 

to shut them down from time to time. That is a huge issue also it 

is affected by this. 

We welcome you to observe. You are observing a hearing where 

Barbara and I love each other. We don’t have any disagreements. 

That is rare. But I hope you enjoy it. 

We have three witnesses. 

Senator BOXER. Remember this moment. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator INHOFE. We have three witnesses. Mr. Denis Bilodeau, 

First Vice President and Director of the Orange County Water District, as Senator Boxer said. Mr. James Dalton, we know him, 

Chief, Engineering and Construction, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Kevin Price, Senior Science and Technology Advisor in 

the Middle East Desalination Research Center. 

So we welcome all three of you here. We will start with you, Mr. 

Dalton, and we will kind of work down. Try to keep your opening 

statements to close to 5 minutes. You are recognized. 
6 

STATEMENT OF JAMES DALTON, CHIEF, ENGINEERING 

AND CONSTRUCTION, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS 

Mr. DALTON. Thank you, Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member 

Boxer, and other distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to present information about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program activities related to drought and 

drought technologies. 

I would like to briefly discuss drought in general terms and then 

provide some information on the actions that we have taken with 

respect to drought, and finally touch on drought technologies we 

are investigating. 

Drought, of course, is a deficiency in precipitation over an extended period, usually over weeks, months, or years, resulting in 

water shortage causing adverse impacts on vegetation. But drought 

is a lot more complex than just the lack of water. Drought is a relatively common weather related phenomenon in North America 

and occurs to some extent every year in some parts of the U.S. It 

affects our agricultural water supply and many other aspects of our 

well-being. 

The Corps performs water management activities at its reservoirs consistent with the project specific, congressionally authorized purpose or purposes for each reservoir. 

Two missions we often balance competing needs during periods 

of drought are flood risk management and water supply. It is important to keep in mind that most dams in the current drought 

areas are solely authorized for flood risk management. 

For instance, as Senator Boxer just mentioned, the Corps operates about 30 dams in California. Seventeen of those are mostly for 

single purpose flood risk management, and 13 have multiple purposes. 

Generally speaking, the Corps will not construct a project solely 

for water supply but may include water supply as a purpose in a 

project constructed primarily for one or more of the three mission 

areas of the Corps of Engineers, which are flood and storm damage 

risk reduction. No. 2, commercial navigation and No. 3, for aquatic 

ecosystem restoration. 

The Corps water supply authorities recognize that the States and 

non-Federal entities have the primary responsibility in the development and management of their water supplies. Water rights, of 

course, are the responsibility of the States. The Corps does not own 

or sell water. 

Water supply storage in a Corps reservoir may be a key component of the water supply plans for non-Federal entities. So nonFederal entities that do not have storage in a Corps reservoir may 

request that the Corps study and consider reallocating existing 

storage from another authorized purpose to water supply. 

Corps reservoirs are operated according to water control manuals, which by policy include reservoir rule curves, and where appropriate it includes drought contingency plans. The purpose of the 

drought contingency plans is to provide a basic reference for water 

management decisions and responses to a water shortage in a 

basin due to drought. 

The Corps is working on methods and Web tools to assist in understanding the projected droughts and how will this impact Corps 
7 

projects. The results of this work will serve as a guide for developing a strategy to update the existing drought contingency plans. 

The U.S. National Climate Assessment, published in 2014, reported that climate is changing and is projected to continue to 

change. The expected changes vary regionally and include warming 

temperatures, resulting in altered precipitation patterns, increasing heat waves and changing snow patterns and droughts. 

There are two current efforts that we have underway to try and 

assist with our ability to manage water resource for climate preparedness and resilience. The first effort is developing and implementing methods to update our drought contingency plans to account for climate change. A second method is to enhance reservoir 

sediment information to assist in climate preparedness and resilience by helping to identify current and future reservoir sediment 

volumes, which can affect food and water supply. 

And a third effort we have ongoing is the Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations research at Lake Mendocino, which is a pilot 

study that would use atmospheric river forecasting to inform water 

management decisions in a manner which reflects current and forecasted conditions. The results may indicate whether this technology 

can be applied in actual operations of certain projects. 

In summary, the combinations of water control manuals and deviations that we can have with those manuals provide a great deal 

of flexibility to respond to short- term or long-term needs based on 

best available information and science consistent with each 

project’s congressionally authorized purposes. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Dalton follows:] 
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Senator INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. Dalton. 

Mr. Bilodeau. 

STATEMENT OF DENIS R. BILODEAU, P.E., FIRST VICE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, ORANGE 

COUNTY WATER DISTRICT 

Mr. BILODEAU. Thank you Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member 

Boxer and members of the committee. I am Denis Bilodeau, and I 

am the First Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Orange 

County Water District. I am deeply honored to appear before you 

today to discuss the most pressing issues of our time: the provision 

of safe and reliable water supply. 

The Orange County Water District is located in Fountain Valley 

in Southern California and provides groundwater to Orange County, including 19 cities and water agencies serving 2.4 million people. Since 1933, we have taken great pride in advancing the development of sustainable water supplies. 

In Orange County we live in a desert. The base flow of the Santa 

Ana River, our main source of surface water, continues to decline. 

Imported water supplies from Northern California and Colorado 

are restricted. 

In the late 1980s we recognized that to preserve our region’s economic and social vitality, the challenges of groundwater depletion, 

seawater intrusion and unreliable surface water demanded an innovative solution. This initiative grew into the Groundwater Replenishment System, which is a joint project between my district 

and the Orange County Sanitation District. 

The GWRS is the world’s largest advanced water purification 

system for potable re-use. It takes treated wastewater that otherwise would be sent to the Pacific Ocean and purifies it using a 

three-step advanced process. This treatment and purification process produces high quality water that exceeds all State and Federal 

drinking water standards. 

We are currently producing 100 million gallons a day which is 

about 25 percent of our water supply. Our next and final planned 

expansion will provide an additional 30 million gallons a day. 

Senator Boxer, it was during your term on the Senate Appropriations Committee that you were able to secure our first Federal appropriation toward construction of the GWRS. Over a 5-year period, 

$20 million in Federal funding from the Bureau of Reclamation’s 

title XVI program leveraged over $72 million in State, local and 

private funding to provide for the overall $481 million construction 

of the Groundwater Replenishment System. We greatly appreciate 

that. The GWRS has allowed our region to take control of our future. 

There is no one size fits all solution to water re-use. The GWRS 

establishes a technology foundation to design and build innovative 

approaches to sustainable water needs. Therefore, I encourage the 

committee to include funding for water re-use in the WRDA reauthorization. 

Second, our district is currently exploring purchasing more than 

50,000 acre-feet per year of desalinated sea water or enough water 

for more than 400,000 people from the purposed Huntington Beach 

desalination project as a way to increase local water supplies. The 
20 

proposed project will be built and operated by Poseidon Resources 

in the city of Huntington Beach. The project is scheduled for final 

hearing before the California Coastal Commission later this year. 

If approved by the Coastal Commission my board will consider 

moving forward with a purchase agreement for the water. The largest hurdle we face, of course, is the economics of ocean desalination. 

Finally, one of the most cost effective solutions that we avail ourselves involves water conservation. Conservation through reduced 

demand is not going to solve our overall need to assure that we 

have adequate water supplies. In order to supplement our conservation program, my district entered into a collaboration with the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who have been a great partner, to 

leverage the investment that our region and the Corps made in the 

construction of Prado Dam on the Santa Ana River. Rather than 

using Prado Dam for a single purpose flood protection, we recognized the potential of conserving water at Prado during storm 

events that could subsequently be recharged into our aquifer for future use. The alternative would be to lose this water supply as it 

coursed down the Santa Ana River to the Pacific Ocean. 

Senator Boxer, you were instrumental in assisting us in our negotiations with the Army Corps, and this year we have already accrued 31,000 acre-feet of water due to your efforts. 

Mr. Chairman, we appreciate your efforts for an orderly passage 

of the WRDA bill. We have provided suggested policy to facilitate 

enhanced conservation of Corps facilities. Our recommendations to 

the committee arise from our experiences over the past few years 

working with the Corps to implement a long-term agreement to 

store water with a priority placed on public safety in an environmentally protective manner. Simply stated, a clear statement on 

the priority to approve and implement water conservation activities 

needs to be made a part of the reauthorized WRDA. 

Also, we need a clear statement to ensure that costs are fairly 

allocated by guaranteeing that only the separable costs attributable 

to the water supply conservation is allocated to the local water 

agency. 

The ability to facilitate an expeditious and equitable agreement 

may seem like an obvious approach to implement an innovative 

and cost effective solution. But we need a strong statement on the 

matter as part of the reauthorization of WRDA. We stand ready to 

support the committee to this end. 

Again I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you 

today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bilodeau follows:] 
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Senator INHOFE. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Price. 

STATEMENT OF KEVIN PRICE, SENIOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR, MIDDLE EAST DESALINATION RESEARCH 

CENTER 

Mr. PRICE. Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member Boxer and members of the committee, I am Kevin Price, Senior Science and Technology Advisor to the Middle East Desalination Research Center in 

Muscat, Oman. 

My passion throughout my career has been the application of 

new technology to the purification of nonconventional waters to increase water supplies, reduce the risks of drought, increase jobs 

and standards of living and to assist in resolving conflict around 

the world. I will focus my remarks on desalination and indirect and 

direct potable water re-use. 

Early in my Bureau of Reclamation career, I was responsible for 

the desalination research portion of the Science and Technology 

Agreement with Israel. During one of my trips, I was asked by a 

television reporter why someone from the U.S. was attending the 

Israel Desalination Society meeting. I explained that the problems 

and solutions Israel was currently solving would be important to 

the U.S. as it faced similar problems in the future. 

I currently work for MEDRC, which is an international institution created in 1996 as part of the Middle East Peace Process and 

is hosted by the Sultanate of Oman. Members of MEDRC include 

the Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis as well as the U.S. Department of State. MEDRC works to address two grand challenges: 

water and peace. This is done through capacity building in training 

and research. 

There is an important technical distinction that must be made 

before proceeding with my remarks. Water purification means a 

number of things depending on the audience. Regulatory frameworks around the world describe what needs to be removed from 

water and to what levels. For many, this means removing suspended particles, bacteria, viruses and very large molecules 

through helping the particles to stick to each other followed by filtration. This will not work with many non-conventional sources, because a major portion of the contaminants is dissolved, not suspended as particles in the water. 

Desalination or the removal of dissolved materials is a fundamentally different process than filtration. Desalination is also a 

critical component of indirect and direct potable water re-use. 

No longer is it necessary to think of drinking water, wastewater 

and impaired water as separate entities. They are all water, waiting to have the containments removed to the desired level. Among 

the 21st century technologies are microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane bioreactors, humidificationdehumidification, capacitive deionization, closed circuit desalination, forward osmosis and a whole bunch of other technologies that 

people continue to develop. 

The lessons learned in Israel have consequences for the U.S. especially in the drought plagued areas near the sea. Israel’s water 

supplies have been limited from its creation. They have had to 
31 

learn how to conserve through public education, reducing water 

losses and appropriate pricing. Because the need for new sources 

was so immediate, they knew membrane technology, which was invented and commercialized in the U.S., would work and decided to 

move forward using desalination without perfect information. They 

had good knowledge from the experience of others and their own 

research on how to manage the environmental effects of desalination such as optimizing energy use, reducing chemical addition, reducing entrainment and impingement of intakes, and mixing of the 

outfall concentrate back into the ocean. 

In discussing this with Oded Fixler, the Deputy Director General 

of the Israel Water Authority, he said that technology is only technology, and it already works. The real issues are broader such as 

who owns the water, the cost of water, whether or not the cost is 

appropriate for crops and which crops, and who will subsidize. By 

developing desalination as a part of their integrated water resources, Israel was also able to develop an industry that can now 

compete internationally. It is important to note the differences between and a State like California. Not only is the control of water 

highly fragmented in California, the State is much larger than 

Israel. Israel has a population of around 8 million in 8 million 

square miles. California has a population of around 39 million in 

164,000 square miles. In addition, the opportunities to move water 

throughout Israel are much greater than in California. 

Some of the lessons I learned with my colleagues while I was in 

Reclamation for generating innovation and unsolicited proposal request for broad boundaries generates unexpected ideas and proposals. Innovation should follow progression related to risk taking 

and project size. Consistent funding at low levels is better than 

higher levels of inconsistent funding. 

It is imperative to have strong initial and periodic technical reviews combined with freedom to accept risk when studying the unknown. If research is to solve problems and meet needs, a strong 

technology transfer must exist to pull innovations from the laboratory into use. When moving technology to rapid implementation, 

demonstration provides the opportunity to involve all parties at an 

early stage. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks. More detail can be 

found in my written statement, and I would be pleased to answer 

any questions at this time. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Price follows:] 
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Senator INHOFE. Thank you, all three, very much. 

Let me just restate that in Oklahoma the legislative goal for 

chloride control is to reduce the naturally occurring chlorides in the 

Red River. Now, multiple studies dating back many, many years 

and designs have been completed, many of them by the Corps of 

Engineers—we are talking over 40 years ago, in 1978 was one of 

them. Yet a single project has not been constructed in Area 6, that 

is Southwestern Oklahoma, despite the Corps spending $3.1 million in Area 6 over the past 10 years. 

Now, my question would be to you, Mr. Dalton. If all of these 

studies and designs, at full Federal expense, have been completed 

over the past four decades, then why is the Corps asking for yet 

another study of the project to determine feasibility of building 

projects to reduce the chlorides in the Red River? 

Mr. DALTON. Mr. Chairman, that study we are looking at now for 

Area 6 started out, as you mentioned in your opening remarks, 

looking at now a re-evaluation of what had been previously completed for that particular study. I think it was maybe around 2005 

or so that we looked at it and we started revising the study or updating the study. At that time, we ran out of money to do that. 

Since that time we have been looking and talking with the State 

and county for, looking for a non-Federal partner to cost share in 

that. 

Senator INHOFE. But there have actually been studies. They completed studies we are talking over a period of 40 years. I am looking at my situation. How do I go back to Oklahomans and ask 

them to spend money for a new feasibility study when we have 

gone through all of this? We have spent millions of dollars. Not a 

shovel has been in the ground yet. 

Did you listen to Mr. Price’s testimony? Do you think there are 

some technologies—is this something, Mr. Price, where technology 

is moving in desalination right now, and there are areas like perhaps the area I referred to in Southwest Oklahoma that might be 

able to benefit from some of these? 

Mr. PRICE. Yes, chlorides can be removed by desalination. 

Senator INHOFE. Yes, but if it is as simple as that, then is it a 

matter of cost? 

Mr. PRICE. Generally, it is a matter of cost. 

Senator INHOFE. So your technology has not really had a dramatic improvement in terms of reducing the costs? 

Mr. PRICE. In the past 30 years it has had a dramatic improvement. Several orders of magnitude. 

Senator INHOFE. Is anything going on right now that we may be 

overlooking in Oklahoma? 

Mr. PRICE. I could discuss it with the Corps of Engineers. I am 

not aware that they would have kept up with the technology. 

Senator INHOFE. Have you kept up with all the technology, Mr. 

Dalton? 

Mr. DALTON. I am not familiar with exactly what the chloride removal we are looking at for this particular project. It is something 

we looked at as part of some of our other projects, I believe. I do 

not have specifics on that. 

What I would like to respond to, Mr. Chairman, is that we don’t 

know how much is required to complete the study, how much more 
40 

work is required. As far as talking with the non-Federal sponsor 

or citizens about why they should cost share, we plan on taking advantage of the work that has already been done. There’s has been 

a number of parts of that study that have been completed. 

What we need to do now is to take a look at what has been done 

and determine what needs to be done so that we can provide you 

with the work that we think is remaining and the cost and schedule to do that. 

Senator INHOFE. Yes, that would be helpful. I remind you and everyone else who is here that next week Senator Boxer and I plan 

to go ahead and start the markup of the WRDA bill. 

Senator BOXER. Yes. 

Senator INHOFE. So we need this stuff now. I want to make sure 

that anything that can be done, and these projects are the kinds 

of projects we are dealing with in this bill. We want to stay on top 

of this thing, and yes, I would like to have—to be sure and I am 

sure as Mr. Price said, that the Corps has a lot of research and all 

that. But just make sure there is not something looming out there 

that would help us resolve this problem. Because right now, we are 

getting into the WRDA bill and that is what this is all about. Our 

intention is not to let these things slide. We should be doing the 

WRDA bill every 2 years, and I think we are on schedule to do 

that. This is the type of thing that we are wanting to do. 

Senator Boxer. 

Senator BOXER. Thank you. That is music to my ears, and I hope 

we can avoid on either side any kind of poison pill amendments 

that do not belong there. I think we have shown that we can do 

that. 

So Mr. Bilodeau, do you view desal as a potential component of 

a comprehensive water supply system? I have a few questions on 

this, I will ask them all and then give you the time. Do you think 

it should be a component—is cost a concern as you explore the addition of desal to your water supply system? Could Federal water 

infrastructure loan programs help address some of these cost 

issues? 

Mr. BILODEAU. Senator Boxer, the answer is yes to all those 

questions. Definitely desalination, we are looking very closely at 

having that part of our portfolio of sources. Of course, we have the 

Santa Ana River which is sort of our free source of water, and we 

have the groundwater replenishment system as we discussed. Desalination would be sort of the third leg to the stool. 

Of course desalination is the most expensive, though, of those 

sources. But as you mentioned, Federal loan programs could certainly help with the cost of that. 

We are fortunate in that there are innovations taking place, 

though, in that arena with membrane technology, and we are looking forward to breakthroughs. 

Senator BOXER. Would you explain that to us in short what that 

means, membrane technology? 

Mr. BILODEAU. Well, in terms of reverse osmosis, of course, you 

are pulling the water molecules across a membrane. The private 

sector actually, I believe Lockheed Martin is developing a membrane called graphene. We have offered to pilot test their technologies in our plant, to look at the effect of it. Because we are very 
41 

excited about these innovations, and we want to push those forward, because they are going to have worldwide implications and 

hopefully drive down the cost of that water. 

To put it in perspective, the water that we produce in our 

groundwater replenishment system the non-subsidized cost is 

about $850 an acre-foot whereas the cost of desalinated water is 

about $1,200 an acre-foot. So it is about 50 percent more expensive. 

Senator BOXER. I would just note, and I think my colleague 

agrees, everybody needs clean water. So when you are faced with 

a situation where maybe you have a water emergency, the cost diminishes because we need it. It is the staff of life in so many ways. 

So what we are trying to do is work with my colleague to get a 

lot of my Water–21 legislation in this. I think so far it has been 

great. We are looking at reauthorization of the Desalination Act. 

Mr. Chairman, if we can put that in the bill, reauthorize an act we 

already have, which would include desal pilot projects, also required development of drought resilient guidelines to help communities deal with drought, that would be helpful. I hope we could 

support new grants to support development of innovative technology and change or modify the SRF loan program to better support innovative technologies because we kind of haven’t updated it 

in a while. 

Those four things, would you agree, would be a good start for us? 

Mr. BILODEAU. Absolutely. One of the bigger challenges we have 

is actually the distribution of the water because this will be a new 

plant that we are looking at in Huntington Beach. And the distribution system alone is over $100 million, just to move the water 

around to where we need it. So a loan program would be a tremendous help to us. 

Senator BOXER. How about the WIFIA program? The Chairman 

and I worked together to get that done. It is based on TIFIA which 

would allow you to leverage funds and get pretty much interestfree loans. Would that be helpful as well? 

Mr. BILODEAU. Interest-free, yes, we certainly could use that. 

Senator BOXER. Well, it is extremely low interest, because basically the interest rate is set based on the chance that you might 

default. It is very low, especially, I would say Orange County has 

proven it can get out of some trouble. You did in the worst situation after the market crash. How well I remember that and how 

hard that was. 

So let me turn to Mr. Price. Do you think the U.S. should have 

a greater role in water supply technology development? You discuss 

in your written testimony the historic role of the U.S. Government 

in developing desalination and other treatment technologies. But 

you say the investment has declined, and we are not participating 

in the new research as much as we were. Is that a correct reading 

of what you said? 

Mr. PRICE. That is correct. One of the ways that I investigated 

that was talking to one of the professional journal editors to get a 

feel as to how the number of scientific publications have changed 

over probably the last 30 or 40 years. Basically the U.S. was a 

leader in the science of desalination 30 years ago. It has now 

dropped to maybe, it is an order of 10, 10 times less in terms of 
42 

publication than it was in the past. I think that is probably due 

to the Federal funding more than anything else. 

Senator BOXER. Well, thank you. I don’t have any other questions 

for the panel. 

I just want to say again to my Chairman, this is an area where 

I just think the work of this committee could really spark an entire 

new effort to rekindle the new technologies. We hear of defense 

companies that are looking at the ways to deal with desal. I think 

it is right there, and I just think a little spark from this committee 

could drive change and alleviate one of the biggest problems that 

we face as a Nation. 

And we always have had these issues. I know Oklahoma, my 

God, when you think back in history the problems that Oklahoma 

has had and California over the years with drought. This is like 

buying a really good insurance policy, and while we are doing it become a leader in the world in these technologies. So I am excited 

to work with you, Mr. Chairman, and I think this committee can 

really light a fire under this desal and recycling, the kind of things 

we like to see happen. 

Senator INHOFE. I think that will happen, and the timing could 

not be better. I know there is a simple answer to this. 

Mr. Price, when you are talking about researching it, you have 

Barbara and me, and you have the big ocean out there and we 

have the little Red River. Is your research into technology and all 

that, will that equally apply to both? Or do you concentrate in one 

area that is more advanced looming technology in one area than 

the other? Or is it the same? 

Mr. PRICE. The technologies remain the same, but for brackish 

water like the Red River, it is a lot less expensive. It takes less energy to remove the dissolved salts because there are fewer salts. 

Senator INHOFE. Well, Mr. Dalton, we will submit a question for 

the record to get new details on how to make chloride control construction a reality in our Area 6 that we are so concerned about. 

Anyway, the timing is right, we are getting into our WRDA bill. 

That is what this is all about, and it has been a problem in my 

State for a long time, and it is one that—it would kind of be fun 

to solve a problem instead of just delay it. We are anticipating 

doing that. 

So I think any other comments any member of the panel would 

like to share with us on this committee, while we only have the two 

of us here, we have staff from all the rest of the committee, and 

they are very interested in this issue. Any other comments you 

want to make? 

All right, in that case we are adjourned. Thank you very much 

for coming. 

Senator BOXER. Thank you so much, everybody. 

[Whereupon, at 10:57 a.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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