Is that desalinization plant in Santa Barbara still operational?
I was contacted by the contractor to give cost estimates on some of the refurbishment work. After looking into it and preparing some estimates, it was clear that the work would be extensive. Some issues:
Original osmotic pressure (to drive the water through the membranes) was about 850 PSI. New membranes are less then half that.
Seawater intake pumps were located off shore and are submersibles. Those pumps are no longer build and no replacement was found, though they were still looking.
The computer system was state of the art in 1990 and used a new storage device (at the time): Floppy discs.
We decided not to pursue this project further, the headaches were not worth it and other companies are better suited for the required scope.