"LOS ANGELES -- California's 3-year-old drought has thrust seawater desalination into the spotlight as San Diego County, Santa Barbara and other cities push ahead with treatment plants that will soon turn the Pacific Ocean into a source of drinking water.

Desalination has emerged as a newly promising technology in California in the face of a record dry spell that has forced tough new conservation measures, depleted reservoirs and raised the costs of importing fresh water from elsewhere.

But experts warn that converting seawater to drinking supplies remains an expensive, energy-intensive enterprise that has had mixed success in places like Australia and Florida."

Steve Gorman reports for Reuters April 14, 2015. [2]