Gavin Newsom this week traveled to Lake Oroville to sign a half-billion-dollar wildfire prevention bill. During his press conference, he pointed to falling water levels at the reservoir and noted that drought conditions increase the wildfire risk. The governor promised “many different announcements” regarding the looming water crisis, as news reports note.

We eagerly await those coming announcements, but urge Newsom to make one in particular. He has long supported a desalination project at the site of a former electrical plant on the Huntington Beach coast. He needs to publicly reiterate his support – and oppose a plan to saddle it with permitting conditions that render its financing infeasible.

Next Friday, the agency charged with issuing permits, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board, will hold a hearing. Project supporters are worried about a draft permit that includes an unprecedented and unreasonable staff recommendation – that the developer, Poseidon Water, begin operation only after it receives state permits for environmental mitigation projects.

For instance, Poseidon will undertake a dredging project related to Bolsa Chica wetlands and create a 40-acre artificial reef off the coast. It can take years to get final permits for such projects – and many more to complete them. If Poseidon delays operations until then, that would endanger the project and deprive Californians of years of reliable water.

On the good-news front, a California Court of Appeal last week upheld the plant’s approval by the State Lands Commission. However, unless the water board issues a reasonable permit, the project will still face untenable delays.

Sierra Nevada snowpack is only 59 percent of expected this season. Water levels have fallen to 50 percent in the state’s reservoirs. 92 percent of California is facing at least a moderate drought.

Desalination isn’t the only solution to these perilous drought conditions, but it can handle some of the shortfall. A similar plant in Carlsbad can meet 9 percent of San Diego County’s water needs.

If the governor is serious about dealing with drought conditions, he needs to remind the water board of exactly what’s at stake.

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